THE  KING'S  JACKAL 


By  RICHARD   HARDING   DAVIS. 

THE  KING'S  JACKAL.  Illustrated  by  C.  D.  Gib 
son.  121110.  $1.25. 

SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE.  Illustrated  by  C.  D. 
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"lit   WILL   GET   THE   BEST  OF   US    IF   WE    STAY. 


THE   KING'S  JACKAL 


BY 
RICHARD   HARDING  DAVIS 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS   BY 

C.   D.   GIBSON 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
1898 


Copyright,  1898, 
BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS, 


JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


"  HE  WILL   GET    THE   BEST   OP  US  IF  WE    STAY  " 

Frontispiece 

THE  MONK  CONTINUED  TO  GAZE  STEADILY  AT 

THE  BLUE  WATERS 40 

"  I  SUPPOSE  IT  IS  BECAUSE  YOU  ARE  FIGHTING 

FOR  YOUR  HOME  " 96 

HE   SWUNG  THE  CROWN  PRINCE  HIGH  UPON 

HIS  SHOULDER 164 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL 


'TRHE  private  terrace  of  the  Hotel  Grand 
-•-  Bretagne,  at  Tangier,  was  shaded  by 
a  great  awning  of  red  and  green  and  yellow, 
and  strewn  with  colored  mats,  and  plants  in 
pots,  and  wicker  chairs.  It  reached  out  from 
the  King's  apartments  into  the  Garden  of 
Palms,  and  was  hidden  by  them  on  two  sides, 
and  showed  from  the  third  the  blue  waters  of 
the  Mediterranean  and  the  great  shadow  of 
Gibraltar  in  the  distance. 

The  Sultan  of  Morocco  had  given  orders 
from  Fez  that  the  King  of  Messina,  in  spite 
of  his  incognito,  should  be  treated  during  his 
stay  in  Tangier  with  the  consideration  due 
to  his  rank,  so  one-half  of  the  Hotel  Grand 
l 


2  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

Bretagne  had  been  set  aside  for  him  and  his 
suite,  and  two  soldiers  of  the  Bashaw's  Guard 
sat  outside  of  his  door  with  drawn  swords. 
They  were  answerable  with  their  heads  for 
the  life  and  safety  of  the  Sultan's  guest,  and 
as  they  could  speak  no  language  but  their 
own,  they  made  a  visit  to  his  Majesty  more 
a  matter  of  adventure  than  of  etiquette. 

Niccolas,  the  King's  major-domo,  stepped 
out  upon  the  terrace  and  swept  the  Mediter 
ranean  with  a  field-glass  for  the  third  time 
since  sunrise.  He  lowered  it,  and  turned 
doubtfully  toward  the  two  soldiers. 

"  The  boat  from  Gibraltar  —  has  she 
arrived  yet  ? "  he  asked. 

The  two  ebony  figures  shook  their  heads 
stiffly,  as  though  they  resented  this  introduc 
tion  of  a  foreign  language,  and  continued  to 
shake  their  heads  as  the  servant  addressed 
the  same  question  to  them  in  a  succession 
of  strange  tongues. 

"  Well,"  said  Colonel  Erhaupt,  briskly,  as 
he  followed  Niccolas  out  upon  the  terrace, 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  3 

"  has  the  boat  arrived  ?  And  the  launch 
from  the  yacht,"  he  continued, "  has  it  started 
for  shore  yet?" 

The  man  pointed  to  where  the  yacht  lay, 
a  mile  outside  the  harbor,  and  handed  him 
the  glass. 

"  It  is  but  just  now  leaving  the  ship's  side," 
he  said.  "  But  I  cannot  make  out  who  comes 
in  her.  Ah,  pardon,"  he  added  quickly,  as 
he  pointed  to  a  stout  elderly  gentleman  who 
walked  rapidly  toward  them  through  the 
garden.  "  The  Gibraltar  boat  must  be  in, 
sir.  Here  is  Baron  Barrat  coming  up  the 
path." 

Colonel  Erhaupt  gave  an  exclamation  of 
satisfaction,  and  waved  his  hand  to  the  new 
comer  in  welcome. 

"  Go  tell  his  Majesty,"  he  said  to  the 
servant. 

The  man  hesitated  and  bowed.  "His 
Majesty  still  sleeps." 

"  Wake  him,"  commanded  Erhaupt.  "  Tell 
him  I  said  to  do  so.  Well,  Baron,"  he  cried, 


4  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

gayly,  as  he  stepped  forward,  "  welcome  — 
or  are  you  welcome  ? "  he  added,  with  an 
uneasy  laugh. 

"  I  should  be.  I  have  succeeded,"  the  other 
replied  gruffly,  as  he  brushed  past  him. 
"  Where  is  the  King  ? " 

"  He  will  be  here  in  a  moment.  I  have 
sent  to  wake  him.  And  you  have  been  suc 
cessful  ?  Good.  I  congratulate  you.  How 
far  successful  ?  " 

The  Baron  threw  himself  into  one  of  the 
wicker  chairs,  and  clapped  his  hands  impa 
tiently  for  a  servant.  "  Twelve  thousand 
pounds  in  all,"  he  replied.  "  That 's  more 
than  he  expected.  It  was  like  pulling  teeth 
at  first.  I  want  some  coffee  at  once,"  he  said 
to  the  attendant,  "  and  a  bath.  That  boat 
reeked  with  Moors  and  cattle,  and  there  was 
no  wagon-lit  on  the  train  from  Madrid.  I 
sat  up  all  night,  and  played  cards  with  that 
young  Cellini.  Have  Madame  Zara  and  Kalo- 
nay  returned  ?  I  see  the  yacht  in  the  harbor. 
Did  she  succeed  ?  " 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  5 

"  We  do  not  know ;  the  boat  only  arrived 
at  daybreak.  They  are  probably  on  the 
launch  that  is  coming  in  now." 

As  Barrat  sipped  his  coffee  and  munched 
his  rolls  with  the  silent  energy  of  a  hungry 
man,  the  Colonel  turned  and  strode  up  and 
down  the  terrace,  pulling  at  his  moustache 
and  glancing  sideways.  When  the  Baron 
had  lighted  a  cigarette  and  thrown  himself 
back  in  his  chair,  Erhaupt  halted  and  sur 
veyed  him  in  some  anxiety. 

"  You  have  been  gone  over  two  weeks,"  he 
said. 

"  I  should  like  to  see  you  accomplish  as 
much  in  as  short  a  time,"  growled  the  other. 
"  You  know  Paris.  You  know  how  hard  it 
is  to  get  people  to  be  serious  there.  I  had 
the  devil's  own  time  at  first.  You  got  my 
cablegram  ?  " 

"  Yes ;  it  was  n't  encouraging." 

"  Well,  I  was  n't  hopeful  myself.  They 
would  n't  believe  a  word  of  it  at  first.  They 
said  Louis  had  n't  shown  such  great  love  for 


6  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

his  country  or  his  people  since  his  exile  that 
they  could  feel  any  confidence  in  him,  and  that 
his  conduct  in  the  last  six  years  did  not  war- 
runt  their  joining  any  undertaking  in  which 
he  was  concerned.  You  can't  blame  them. 
They  've  backed  him  so  many  times  already, 
and  they  Ve  been  bitten,  and  they  're  shy, 
naturally.  But  I  swore  he  was  repentant, 
that  he  saw  the  error  of  his  ways,  that  he 
wanted  to  sit  once  more  before  he  died  on  the 
throne  of  his  ancestors,  and  that  he  felt  it 
was  due  to  his  son  that  he  should  make  an 
effort  to  get  him  back  his  birthright.  It  was 
the  son  won  them.  '  Exhibit  A,'  I  call  him. 
None  of  them  would  hear  of  it  until  I  spoke 
of  the  Prince.  So  when  I  saw  that,  I  told 
them  he  was  a  fine  little  chap,  healthy  and 
manly  and  brave,  and  devoted  to  his  priest, 
and  all  that  rot,  and  they  began  to  listen. 
At  first  they  wanted  his  Majesty  to  abdicate, 
and  give  the  boy  a  clear  road  to  the  crown, 
but  of  course  I  hushed  that  up.  I  told  them 
we  were  acting  advisedly,  that  we  had  reason 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  7 

to  know  that  the  common  people  of  Messina 
were  sick  of  the  Republic,  and  wanted  their 
king ;  that  Louis  loved  the  common  people 
like  a  father ;  that  he  would  re-establish  the 
Church  in  all  her  power,  and  that  Father 
Paul  was  working  day  and  night  for  us,  and 
that  the  Vatican  was  behind  us.  Then  I 
dealt  out  decorations  and  a  few  titles,  which 
Louis  has  made  smell  so  confoundedly  rank 
to  Heaven  that  nobody  would  take  them.  It 
was  like  a  game.  I  played  one  noble  gentle 
man  against  another,  and  gave  this  one  a  por 
trait  of  the  king  one  day,  and  the  other  a 
miniature  of  '  Exhibit  A  '  the  next,  and  they 
grew  jealous,  and  met  together,  and  talked  it 
over,  and  finally  unlocked  their  pockets. 
They  contributed  about  £  9,000  between 
them.  Then  the  enthusiasm  spread  to  the 
women,  and  they  gave  me  their  jewels,  and  a 
lot  of  youngsters  volunteered  for  the  expedi 
tion,  and  six  of  them  came  on  with  me  in  the 
train  last  night.  I  won  two  thousand  francs 
from  that  boy  Cellini  on  the  way  down. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

They  yre  all  staying  at  the  Continental.  I 
promised  them  an  audience  this  morning." 

"  Good,"  commented  the  Colonel,  "  good  — 
£9,000.  I  suppose  you  took  out  your  com 
mission  in  advance  ?  " 

"  I  took  out  nothing,"  returned  the  other, 
angrily.  "  I  brought  it  all  with  me,  and  I 
have  a  letter  from  each  of  them  stating  just 
what  he  or  she  subscribed  toward  the  expedi 
tion, —  the  Duke  Dantiz  so  much  ;  the  Duke 
D'Orvay,  50,000  francs ;  the  Countess  Mat- 
tini,  a  diamond  necklace.  It  is  all  quite  reg 
ular.  I  played  fair." 

The  Colonel  had  stopped  in  his  walk,  and 
had  been  peering  eagerly  down  the  leafy  path 
through  the  garden.  "  Is  that  not  Zara  com 
ing  now  ? "  he  asked.  "  Look,  your  eyes  are 
better  than  mine." 

Barrat  rose  quickly,  and  the  two  men 
walked  forward,  and  bowed  with  the  easy 
courtesy  of  old  comrades  to  a  tall  fair  girl 
who  came  hurriedly  up  the  steps.  The 
Countess  Zara  was  a  young  woman,  but  one 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  9 

who  had  stood  so  long  on  guard  against  the 
world,  that  the  strain  had  told,  and  her  eyes 
were  hard  and  untrustful,  so  that  she  looked 
much  older  than  she  really  was.  Her  life 
was  of  two  parts.  There  was  little  to  be  told 
of  the  first  part ;  she  was  an  English  girl 
who  had  come  from  a  manufacturing  town  to 
study  art  and  live  alone  in  Paris,  where  she 
had  been  too  indolent  to  work,  and  too  bril 
liant  to  remain  long  without  companions 
eager  for  her  society.  Through  them  and 
the  stories  of  her  wit  and  her  beauty,  she  had 
come  to  know  the  King  of  Messina,  and  with 
that  meeting  the  second  part  of  her  life 
began  ;  for  she  had  found  something  so  at 
tractive,  either  in  his  title  or  in  the  cynical 
humor  of  the  man  himself,  that  for  the  last 
two  years  she  had  followed  his  fortunes,  and 
Miss  Muriel  Winter,  art  student,  had  become 
the  Countess  Zara,  and  an  uncrowned  queen. 
She  was  beautiful,  with  great  masses  of  yellow 
hair  and  wonderful  brown  eyes.  Her  manner 
when  she  spoke  seemed  to  show  that  she  de- 


10  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

spised  the  world  and  those  in  it  almost  as 
thoroughly  as  she  despised  herself. 

On  the  morning  of  her  return  from  Mes 
sina,  she  wore  a  blue  serge  yachting  suit 
with  a  golf  cloak  hanging  from  her  shoulders, 
and  as  she  crossed  the  terrace  she  pulled  ner 
vously  at  her  gloves  and  held  out  her  hand 
covered  with  jewels  to  each  of  the  two  men. 

"  I  bring  good  news,"  she  said,  with  an 
excited  laugh.  "  Where  is  Louis  ? " 

"  I  will  tell  his  Majesty  that  you  have  come. 
You  are  most  welcome,"  the  Baron  answered. 

But  as  he  turned  to  the  door  it  opened  from 
the  inside  and  the  King  came  toward  them, 
shivering  and  blinking  his  eyes  in  the  bright 
sunlight.  It  showed  the  wrinkles  and  creases 
around  his  mouth  and  the  blue  veins  under 
the  mottled  skin,  and  the  tiny  lines  at  the 
corners  of  his  little  bloodshot  eyes  that 
marked  the  pace  at  which  he  had  lived  as 
truthfully  as  the  rings  on  a  tree-trunk  tell  of 
its  quiet  growth. 

He  caught  up  his  long  dressing-gown  across 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  11 

his  chest  as  though  it  were  a  mantle,  and  with 
a  quick  glance  to  see  that  there  were  no  other 
witnesses  to  his  deshabille,  bent  and  kissed 
the  woman's  hand  and  taking  it  in  his  own 
stroked  it  gently. 

"  My  dear  Marie,"  he  lisped,  "  it  is  like 
heaven  to  have  you  back  with  us  again.  We 
have  felt  your  absence  every  hour.  Pray  be 
seated,  and  pardon  my  robe.  I  saw  you 
through  the  blinds  and  could  not  wait.  Tell 
us  the  glorious  news.  The  Baron's  good 
words  I  have  already  overheard  ;  I  listened  to 
them  with  great  entertainment  while  I  was 
dressing.  I  hoped  he  would  say  something 
discourteous  or  foolish,  but  he  was  quite  dis 
creet  until  he  told  Erhaupt  that  he  had  kept 
back  none  of  the  money.  Then  I  lost  inter 
est.  Fiction  is  never  so  entertaining  to  me 
as  the  truth  and  real  people.  But  tell  us  now 
of  your  mission  and  of  all  you  did ;  and 
whether  successful  or  not,  be  assured  you  are 
most  welcome." 

The  Countess  Zara  smiled  at  him  doubt- 


12  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

fully  and  crossed  her  hands  in  her  lap,  glanc 
ing  anxiously  over  her  shoulder. 

"  I  must  be  very  brief,  for  Kalonay  and 
Father  Paul  are  close  behind  me,"  she  said. 
"  They  only  stopped  for  a  moment  at  the 
custom-house.  Keep  watch,  Baron,  and  tell 
me  when  you  see  them  coming." 

Barrat  moved  his  chair  so  that  it  faced  the 
garden-path,  the  King  crossed  his  legs  com 
fortably  and  wrapped  his  padded  dressing- 
robe  closer  around  his  slight  figure,  and 
Erhaupt  stood  leaning  on  the  back  of  his 
chair  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  fine  insolent 
beauty  of  the  woman  before  them. 

She  nodded  her  head  toward  the  soldiers 
who  sat  at  the  entrance  to  the  terrace,  as 
silent  and  immovable  as  blind  beggars  be 
fore  a  mosque.  "  Do  they  understand  ? "  she 
asked. 

"  No,"  the  King  assured  her.  "  They  un 
derstand  nothing,  but  that  they  are  to  keep 
people  away  from  me  —  and  they  do  it  very 
well.  I  wish  I  could  import  them  to  Paris  to 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  13 

help  Niccolas  fight  off  creditors.  Continue, 
we  are  most  impatient." 

"We  left  here  last  Sunday  night,  as  you 
know,"  she  said.  "  We  passed  Algiers  the 
next  morning  and  arrived  off  the  island  at 
mid-day,  anchoring  outside  in  the  harbor. 
We  flew  the  Royal  Yacht  Squadron's  pen 
nant,  and  an  owner's  private  signal  that  we 
invented  on  the  way  down.  They  sent  me 
ashore  in  a  boat,  and  Kalonay  and  Father 
Paul  continued  on  along  the  southern  shore, 
where  they  have  been  making  speeches  in  all 
the  coast-towns  and  exciting  the  people  in 
favor  of  the  revolution.  I  heard  of  them  often 
while  I  was  at  the  capital,  but  not  from  them. 
The  President  sent  a  company  of  carbineers 
to  arrest  them  the  very  night  they  returned 
and  smuggled  me  on  board  the  yacht  again. 
We  put  off  as  soon  as  I  came  over  the  side 
and  sailed  directly  here. 

"  As  soon  as  I  landed  on  Tuesday  I  went 
to  the  HStel  de  Messina,  and  sent  my  card  to 
the  President.  He  is  that  man  Palaccio,  the 


14  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

hotel-keeper's  son;  the  man  you  sent  out  of 
the  country  for  writing  pamphlets  against  the 
monarchy,  and  who  lived  in  Sicily  during  his 
exile.  He  gave  me  an  audience  at  once,  and 
I  told  my  story.  As  he  knew  who  I  was,  I 
explained  that  I  had  quarrelled  with  you,  and 
that  I  was  now  prepared  to  sell  him  the 
secrets  of  an  expedition  which  you  were  fit 
ting  out  with  the  object  of  re-establishing 
yourself  on  the  throne.  He  would  n't  believe 
that  there  was  any  such  expedition,  and  said 
it  was  blackmail,  and  threatened  to  give  me 
to  the  police  if  I  did  not  leave  the  island  in 
twenty-four  hours  —  he  was  exceedingly  rude. 
So  I  showed  him  receipts  for  ammunition  and 
rifles  and  Maxim  guns,  and  copies  of  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  expedition,  and  papers  of 
the  yacht,  in  which  she  was  described  as  an 
armored  cruiser,  and  he  rapidly  grew  polite, 
even  humble,  and  I  made  him  apologize  first, 
and  then  take  me  out  to  luncheon.  That  was 
the  first  day.  The  second  day  telegrams 
began  to  come  in  from  the  coast-towns,  say- 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  15 

Ing  that  the  Prince  Kalonay  and  Father  Paul 
were  preaching  and  exciting  the  people  to 
rebellion,  and  travelling  from  town  to  town 
in  a  inan-of-war.  Then  he  was  frightened. 
The  Prince  with  his  popularity  in  the  south 
was  alarming  enough,  but  the  Prince  and 
Father  Superior  to  help  him  seemed  to  mean 
the  end  of  the  Republic. 

"  I  learned  while  I  was  down  there  that  the 
people  think  the  Father  put  some  sort  of  a 
ban  on  every  one  who  had  anything  to  do 
with  driving  the  Dominican  monks  out  of  the 
island  and  with  the  destruction  of  the  monas 
teries.  I  don't  know  whether  he  did  or  not, 
but  they  believe  he  did,  which  is  the  same 
thing,  and  that  superstitious  little  beast,  the 
President,  certainly  believed  it ;  he  attributed 
everything  that  had  gone  wrong  on  the  island 
to  that  cause.  Why,  if  a  second  cousin  of  the 
wife  of  a  brother  of  one  of  the  men  who  helped 
to  fire  a  church  falls  ofT  his  horse  and  breaks 
his  leg  they  say  that  he  is  under  the  curse 
of  the  Father  Superior,  and  there  are  many 


16  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

who  believe  the  Republic  will  never  succeed 
until  Paul  returns  and  the  Church  is  re-estab 
lished.  The  Government  seems  to  have  kept 
itself  well-informed  about  your  Majesty's 
movements,  and  it  has  never  felt  any  anxiety 
that  you  would  attempt  to  return,  and  it  did 
not  fear  the  Church  party  because  it  knew 
that  without  you  the  priests  could  do  nothing. 
But  when  Paul,  whom  the  common  people  look 
upon  as  a  living  saint  and  martyr,  returned 
hand  in  hand  with  your  man  Friday,  they  were 
in  a  panic  and  felt  sure  the  end  had  come.  So 
the  President  called  a  hasty  meeting  of  his 
Cabinet.  And  such  a  Cabinet!  I  wish  you 
could  have  seen  them,  Louis,  with  me  in  the 
centre  playing  on  them  like  an  advocate  before 
a  jury.  They  were  the  most  dreadful  men  I 
ever  met,  bourgeois  and  stupid  and  ugly  to 
a  degree.  Two  of  them  were  commission- 
merchants,  and  one  of  them  is  old  Dr.  Gus- 
tavanni,  who  kept  the  chemist's  shop  in  the 
Piazza  Royale.  They  were  quite  silly  with 
fear,  and  they  begged  me  to  tell  them  how 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  17 

they  could  avert  the  fall  of  the  Republic  and 
prevent  your  landing.  And  I  said  that  it  was 
entirely  a  question  of  money  ;  that  if  we  were 
paid  sufficiently  the  expedition  would  not 
land  and  we  would  leave  them  in  peace,  but 
that  —  " 

The  King  shifted  his  tegs  uneasily,  and 
coughed  behind  his  thin,  pink  fingers. 

"  That  was  rather  indiscreet,  was  it  not, 
Marie  ? "  he  murmured.  "  The  idea  was  to 
make  them  think  that  I,  at  least,  was  sincere, 
was  not  that  it?  To  make  it  appear  that 
though  there  were  traitors  in  his  camp,  the 
King  was  in  most  desperate  earnest  ?  If  they 
believe  that,  you  see,  it  will  allow  me  to  raise 
another  expedition  as  soon  as  the  money  we 
get  for  this  one  is  gone ;  but  if  you  have  let 
them  know  that  I  am  the  one  who  is  selling 
out,  you  have  killed  the  goose  that  lays  the 
golden  eggs.  They  will  never  believe  us  when 
we  cry  wolf  again  —  " 

"  You  must  let  me  finish,"  Zara  interrupted. 
"  I  did  not  involve  you  in  the  least.  I  said 


18  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

that  there  were  traitors  in  the  camp  of  whom 
I  was  the  envoy,  and  that  if  they  would  pay 
us  300,000  francs  we  would  promise  to  allow 
the  expedition  only  to  leave  the  yacht.  Their 
troops  could  then  make  a  show  of  attacking 
our  landing-party  and  we  would  raise  the  cry 
of  '  treachery  '  and  retreat  to  the  boats.  By 
this  we  would  accomplish  two  things,  —  we 
would  satisfy  those  who  had  contributed  funds 
toward  the  expedition  that  we  had  at  least 
made  an  honest  effort,  and  your  Majesty 
would  be  discouraged  by  such  treachery  from 
ever  attempting  another  attack.  The  money 
was  to  be  paid  two  weeks  later  in  Paris,  to 
me  or  to  whoever  brings  this  ring  that  I  wear. 
The  plan  we  finally  agreed  upon  is  this :  the 
yacht  is  to  anchor  off  Basnai  next  Thursday 
night.  At  high  tide,  which  is  just  about  day 
break,  we  are  to  lower  our  boats  and  land  our 
men  on  that  long  beach  to  the  south  of  the 
breakwater.  The  troops  of  the  Republic  are 
to  lie  hidden  in  the  rocks  until  our  men  have 
formed.  Then  they  are  to  fire  over  their  heads, 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  19 

and  we  are  to  retreat  in  great  confusion,  re 
turn  to  the  yacht,  and  sail  away.  Two  weeks 
later  they  are  to  pay  the  money  into  my  hands, 
or,"  she  added  with  a  smile,  as  she  held  up 
her  fourth  finger,  "  to  whoever  brings  this 
ring.  And  I  need  not  say  that  the  ring  will 
not  leave  my  finger." 

There  was  a  moment's  pause,  as  though  the 
men  were  waiting  to  learn  if  she  had  more  to 
tell,  and  then  the  King  threw  back  his  head 
and  laughed  softly.  He  saw  Erhaupt's  face 
above  his  shoulder,  filled  with  the  amazement 
and  indignation  of  a  man  who  as  a  duellist 
and  as  a  soldier  had  shown  a  certain  brute 
courage,  and  the  King  laughed  again. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  that,  Colonel  ? " 
he  cried,  gayly.  "  They  are  a  noble  race,  my 
late  subjects." 

"  Bah,"  exclaimed  the  German.  "  I  did  n't 
know  we  were  dealing  with  a  home  for  old 
women." 

The  Baron  laughed  comfortably.  "  It  is 
like  taking  money  from  a  blind  beggar's  hat," 
he  said. 


20  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  Why,  with  two  hundred  men  that  I  could 
pick  up  in  London,"  Erhaupt  declared,  con 
temptuously,  "  I  would  guarantee  to  put  you 
on  the  throne  in  a  fortnight." 

"  Heaven  forbid,"  exclaimed  his  Majesty. 
"  So  they  surrendered  as  quickly  as  that,  did 
they?"  he  asked,  nodding  toward  Madame 
Zara  to  continue. 

The  Countess  glanced  again  over  her 
shoulder  and  bit  her  lips  in  some  chagrin. 
Her  eyes  showed  her  disappointment.  "  It 
may  seem  an  easy  victory  to  you,"  she  said, 
consciously,  "  but  I  doubt,  knowing  all  the 
circumstances,  if  any  of  your  Majesty's  gentle 
men  could  have  served  you  as  well.  It  needed 
a  woman  and  —  " 

"  It  needed  a  beautiful  woman,"  interrupted 
the  King,  quickly,  in  a  tone  that  he  would 
have  used  to  a  spoiled  child.  "  It  needed  a 
woman  of  tact,  a  woman  of  courage,  a  woman 
among  women  —  the  Countess  Zara.  Do  not 
imagine,  Marie,  that  we  undervalue  your  part. 
It  is  their  lack  of  courage  that  distresses 
Colonel  Erhaupt." 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  21 

"  One  of  them,  it  is  true,  did  wish  to  fight," 
the  Countess  continued,  with  a  smile ;  "  a 
Frenchman  named  Renauld,  whom  they  have 
put  in  charge  of  the  army.  He  scoffed  at  the 
whole  expedition,  but  they  told  him  that  a 
foreigner  could  not  understand  as  they  did 
the  danger  of  the  popularity  of  the  Prince 
Kalonay,  who,  by  a  speech  or  two  among 
the  shepherds  and  fishermen,  could  raise 
an  army." 

The  King  snapped  his  fingers  impatiently. 

"  An  army  of  brigands  and  smugglers !  "  he 
exclaimed.  "  That  for  his  popularity  !  "  But 
he  instantly  raised  his  hands  as  though  in 
protest  at  his  own  warmth  of  speech  and  in 
apology  for  his  outbreak. 

"His  zeal  will  ruin  us  in  time.  He  is 
deucedly  in  the  way,"  he  continued,  in  his 
usual  tone  of  easy  cynicism.  "  We  should 
have  let  him  into  our  plans  from  the  first,  and 
then  if  he  chose  to  take  no  part  in  them  we 
would  at  least  have  had  a  free  hand.  As  it  is 
now,  we  have  three  different  people  to  deceive : 


22  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

this  Cabinet  of  shopkeepers,  which  seems  easy 
enough ;  Father  Paul  and  his  fanatics  of  the 
Church  party;  and  this  apostle  of  the  divine 
right  of  kings,  Kalonay.  And  he  and  the 
good  Father  are  not  fools  — " 

At  these  words  Madame  Zara  glanced  again 
toward  the  garden,  and  this  time  with  such 
evident  uneasiness  in  her  face  that  Barrat 
eyed  her  with  quick  suspicion. 

"  What  is  it  ?"  he  asked,  sharply.  "  There 
is  something  you  have  not  told  us." 

The  woman  looked  at  the  King,  and  he 
nodded  his  head  as  though  in  assent.  "  I  had 
to  tell  them  who  else  was  in  the  plot  besides 
myself,"  she  said,  speaking  rapidly.  "  I  had 
to  give  them  the  name  of  some  man  who  they 
knew  would  be  able  to  do  what  I  have  prom 
ised  we  could  do  —  who  could  put  a  stop  to 
the  revolution.  The  name  I  gave  was  his  — 
Kalonay's." 

Barrat  threw  himself  forward  in  his  chair. 

"  Kalonay's  ?  "  he  cried,  incredulously. 

"Kalonay's?"    echoed    Erhaupt.     "What 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  23 

madness,  Madame !  Why  name  the  only  one 
who  is  sincere  ?  " 

"  She  will  explain,"  said  the  King,  in  an 
uneasy  voice ;  "  let  her  explain.  She  has 
acted  according  to  my  orders  and  for  the  best, 
but  I  confess  I  —  " 

"  Some  one  had  to  be  sacrificed,"  returned 
the  woman,  boldly,  "  and  why  not  he  ?  Indeed, 
if  we  wish  to  save  ourselves,  there  is  every 
reason  that  it  should  be  he.  You  know  how 
mad  he  is  for  the  King's  return,  how  he  him 
self  wishes  to  get  back  to  the  island  and  to 
his  old  position  there.  Why,  God  only  knows, 
but  it  is  so.  What  pleasure  he  finds  in  a  land 
of  mists  and  fogs,  in  a  ruined  castle  with 
poachers  and  smuggling  fishermen  for  com 
panions,  I  cannot  comprehend.  But  the  fact 
remains,  he  always  speaks  of  it  as  home  and 
he  wishes  to  return.  And  now,  suppose  he 
learns  the  truth,  as  he  may  at  any  moment, 
and  discovers  that  the  whole  expedition  for 
which  he  is  staking  his  soul  and  life  is  a  trick, 
a  farce ;  that  we  use  it  only  as  a  bait  to 


24  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

draw  money  from  the  old  nobility,  and  to 
frighten  the  Republic  into  paying  us  to  leave 
them  in  peace  ?  How  do  we  know  what  he 
might  not  do?  He  may  tell  the  whole  of 
Europe.  He  may  turn  on  you  and  expose 
you,  and  then  what  have  we  left  ?  It  is  your 
last  chance.  It  is  our  last  chance.  We  have 
tried  everything  else,  and  we  cannot  show 
ourselves  in  Europe,  at  least  not  without 
money  in  our  hands. "  But  by  naming  Kalonay 
I  have  managed  it  so  that  we  have  only  to 
show  the  written  agreement  I  have  made  with 
the  Republic  and  he  is  silenced.  In  it  they 
have  promised  to  pay  the  Prince  Kalonay, 
naming  him  in  full,  800,000  francs  if  the 
expedition  is  withdrawn.  That  agreement  is 
in  my  hands,  and  that  is  our  answer  to  what 
ever  he  may  think  or  say.  Our  word  is  as 
good  as  his,  or  as  bad  ;  we  are  all  of  the  same 
party  as  far  as  Europe  cares,  and  it  becomes  a 
falling  out  among  thieves,  and  we  are  equal." 
Baron  Barrat  leaned  forward  and  marked 
each  word  with  a  movement  of  his  hand. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  25 

"  Do  I  understand  you  to  say,"  he  asked, 
"  that  you  have  a  paper  signed  by  the  Repub 
lic  agreeing  to  pay  300,000  francs  to  Kal- 
onay  ?  Then  how  are  we  to  get  it  ? "  he 
demanded,  incredulously.  "  From  him  ?  " 

"  It  is  made  payable  to  him,"  continued  the 
woman,  "  or  to  whoever  brings  this  ring  I 
wear  to  the  banking-house  of  the  Schlevingens 
two  weeks  after  the  expedition  has  left  the 
island.  I  explained  that  clause  to  them 
by  saying  that  Kalonay  and  I  were  working 
together  against  the  King,  and  as  he  might 
be  suspicious  if  we  were  both  to  leave  him  so 
soon  after  the  failure  of  the  expedition  we 
would  be  satisfied  if  they  gave  the  money  to 
whichever  one  first  presented  the  ring.  Sup 
pose  I  had  said,"  she  went  on,  turning  to  the 
King, "  that  it  was  either  Barrat  or  the  Colonel 
here  who  had  turned  traitor.  They  know  the 
Baron  of  old,  when  he  was  Chamberlain  and 
ran  your  roulette  wheel  at  the  palace.  They 
know  he  is  not  the  man  to  turn  back  an  expe 
dition.  And  the  Colonel,  if  he  will  pardon 


26  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

me,  has  sold  his  services  so  often  to  one  side 
or  another  that  it  would  have  been  difficult  to 
make  them  believe  that  this  time  he  is  sin 
cere.  But  Kalonay,  the  man  they  fear  most 
next  to  your  Majesty  —  to  have  him  turn 
traitor,  why,  that  was  a  master  stroke. 
Even  those  boors,  stupid  as  they  are,  saw 
that.  When  they  made  out  the  agreement 
they  put  down  all  his  titles,  and  laughed  as 
they  wrote  them  in.  '  Prince  Judas  '  they 
called  him,  and  they  were  in  ecstasies  at  the 
idea  of  the  aristocrat  suing  for  blood-money 
against  his  sovereign,  of  the  man  they  feared 
showing  himself  to  be  only  a  common  black 
mailer.  It  delighted  them  to  find  a  prince 
royal  sunk  lower  than  themselves,  this  man 
who  has  treated  them  like  curs  —  like  the 
curs  they  are,"  she  broke  out  suddenly  — 
"  like  the  curs  they  are ! " 

She  rose  and  laughed  uneasily  as  though 
at  her  own  vehemence. 

"  I  am  tired,"  she  said,  avoiding  the  King's 
eyes ;  "  the  trip  has  tired  me.  If  you  will 


THE   KING'S  JACKAL  27 

excuse  me,  I  will  go  to  my  rooms  —  through 
your  hall-way,  if  I  may." 

"  Most  certainly,"  said  the  King.  "  I  trust 
you  will  be  rested  by  dinner-time.  Au  revoir, 
my  fair  ambassadrice." 

The  woman  nodded  and  smiled  back  at  him 
brightly,  and  Louis  continued  to  look  after 
her  as  she  disappeared  down  the  corridor. 
He  rubbed  the  back  of  his  fingers  across  his 
lips,  and  thoughtfully  examined  his  finger 
nails. 

"  I  wonder,"  he  said,  after  a  pause,  looking 
up  at  Barrat.  The  Baron  raised  his  eyebrows 
with  a  glance  of  polite  interrogation. 

"  I  wonder  if  Kalonay  dared  to  make  love 
to  her  on  the  way  down." 

The  Baron's  face  became  as  expressionless 
as  a  death-mask,  and  he  shrugged  his  shoul 
ders  in  protest. 

"  —  Or,  did  she  make  love  to  Kalonay  ? " 
the  King  insisted,  laughing  gently.  "  I  won 
der  now.  I  do  not  care  to  know,  but  I 
wonder," 


28  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

According  to  tradition  the  Kalonay  family 
was  an  older  one  than  that  of  the  House  of 
Artois,  and  its  name  had  always  been  the  one 
next  in  importance  to  that  of  the  reigning 
house.  The  history  of  Messina  showed  that 
different  members  of  the  Kalonay  family  had 
fought  and  died  for  different  kings  of  Artois, 
and  had  enjoyed  their  favor  and  shared  their 
reverses  with  equal  dignity,  and  that  they  had 
stood  like  a  rampart  when  the  kingdom  was 
invaded  by  the  levelling  doctrines  of  Repub 
licanism  and  equality.  And  though  the  Kalo- 
nays  were  men  of  stouter  stuff  than  their 
cousins  of  Artois,  they  had  never  tried  to 
usurp  their  place,  but  had  set  an  example  to 
the  humblest  shepherd  of  unfailing  loyalty 
and  good-will  to  the  King  and  his  lady.  The 
Prince  Kalonay  who  had  accompanied  the 
Dominican  monk  to  Messina  was  the  last  of 
his  race,  and  when  Louis  IV.  had  been  driven 
off  the  island,  he  had  followed  his  sovereign 
into  exile  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  with  his 
customary  good-humor.  His  estates  in  con- 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  29 

sequence  of  this  step,  had  been  taken  up  by 
the  Republic,  and  Kalonay  had  accepted  the 
loss  philosophically  as  the  price  one  pays  for 
loving  a  king.  He  found  exile  easy  to  bear 
in  Paris,  and  especially  so  as  he  had  never  re 
linquished  the  idea  that  some  day  the  King 
would  return  to  his  own  again.  So  firmly  did 
he  believe  in  this,  and  so  keenly  was  his  heart 
set  upon  it,  that  Louis  had  never  dared  to  let 
him  know  that  for  himself  exile  in  Paris  and 
the  Riviera  was  vastly  to  be  preferred  to  au 
thority  over  a  rocky  island  hung  with  fogs,  and 
inhabited  by  dull  merchants  and  fierce  banditti. 
The  conduct  of  the  King  during  their  resi 
dence  in  Paris  would  have  tried  the  loyalty 
of  one  less  gay  and  careless  than  Kalonay, 
for  he  was  a  sorry  monarch,  and  if  the  princi 
ple  that  "the  King  can  do  no  wrong"  had 
not  been  bred  in  the  young  Prince's  mind,  he 
would  have  deserted  his  sovereign  in  the  early 
days  of  their  exile.  But  as  it  was,  he  made 
excuses  for  him  to  others  and  to  himself,  and 
served  the  King's  idle  purposes  so  well  that 


30  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

he  gained  for  himself  the  name  of  the  King's 
Jackal,  and  there  were  some  who  regarded 
him  as  little  better  than  the  King's  confiden 
tial  blackguard,  and  man  Friday,  the  weakest 
if  the  most  charming  of  his  Court  of  Adven 
turers. 

At  the  first  hint  which  the  King  gave  of 
his  desire  to  place  himself  again  in  power, 
Kalonay  had  ceased  to  be  his  Jackal  and 
would  have  issued  forth  as  a  cornmander-in- 
chief,  had  the  King  permitted  him  ;  but  it  was 
not  to  Louis's  purpose  that  the  Prince  should 
know  the  real  object  of  the  expedition,  so  he 
assigned  its  preparation  to  Erhaupt,  and  dis 
patched  Kalonay  to  the  south  of  the  island. 
At  the  same  time  Madame  Zara  had  been 
sent  to  the  north  of  the  island,  ostensibly  to 
sound  the  sentiment  of  the  old  nobility,  but 
in  reality  to  make  capital  out  of  the  presence 
there  of  Kalonay  and  Father  Paul. 

The  King  rose  hurriedly  when  the  slim 
figure  of  the  Prince  and  the  broad  shoulders 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  31 

and  tonsured  head  of  the  monk  appeared  at 
the  farthest  end  of  the  garden-walk. 

"  They  are  coming,"  he  cried,  with  a  guilty 
chuckle ;  "  so  I  shall  run  away  and  finish 
dressing.  I  leave  you  to  receive  the  first 
shock  of  Kalonay's  enthusiasm  alone.  I  con 
fess  he  bores  me.  Remember,  the  story 
Madame  Zara  told  them  in  the  yacht  is  the 
one  she  told  us  this  morning,  that  none  of  the 
old  royalists  at  the  capital  would  promise  us 
any  assistance.  Be  careful  now,  and  play 
your  parts  prettily.  We  are  all  terribly  in 
earnest." 

Kalonay's  enthusiasm  had  not  spent  itself 
entirely  before  the  King  returned.  He  had 
still  a  number  of  amusing  stories  to  tell,  and 
he  reviewed  the  adventures  of  the  monk  and 
himself  with  such  vivacity  and  humor  that 
the  King  nodded  his  head  in  delight,  and 
even  the  priest  smiled  indulgently  at  the 
recollection. 

Kalonay  had  seated  himself  on  one  of  the 
tables,  with  his  feet  on  a  chair  and  with  a 


32  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

cigarette  burning  between  his  fingers.  He 
was  a  handsome,  dark  young  man  of  thirty, 
with  the  impulsive  manner  of  a  boy.  Dissi 
pation  had  left  no  trace  on  his  face,  and  his 
eyes  were  as  innocent  of  evil  and  as  beautiful 
as  a  girl's,  and  as  eloquent  as  his  tongue. 
"  May  the  Maria  Santissima  pity  the  girls  they 
look  upon,"  his  old  Spanish  nurse  used  to  say 
of  them.  But  Kalonay  had  shown  pity  for 
every  one  save  himself.  His  training  at  an 
English  public  school,  and  later  as  a  soldier 
in  the  Ecole  Polytechnique  at  Paris,  had  saved 
him  from  a  too  early  fall,  and  men  liked  him 
instinctively,  and  the  women  much  too  well. 

"  It  was  good  to  be  back  there  again,"  he 
cried,  with  a  happy  sigh.  "  It  was  good  to 
see  the  clouds  following  each  other  across  the 
old  mountains  and  throwing  black  shadows 
on  the  campagna,  and  to  hear  the  people's 
patois  and  to  taste  Messinian  wine  again  and 
to  know  it  was  from  your  own  hillside.  All 
our  old  keepers  came  down  to  the  coast  to 
meet  us,  and  told  me  about  the  stag-hunt  the 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  33 

week  before,  and  who  was  married,  and  who 
was  in  jail,  and  who  had  been  hung  for  shoot 
ing  a  customs  officer,  and  they  promised  fine 
deer  stalking  if  I  get  back  before  the  snow 
leaves  the  ridges,  for  they  say  the  deer  have 
not  been  hunted  and  are  running  wild."  He 
stopped  and  laughed.  "  I  forgot,"  he  said, 
"  your  Majesty  does  not  care  for  the  rude 
pleasures  of  my  half  of  the  island."  Kalonay 
threw  away  his  cigarette,  clasping  his  hands 
before  him  with  a  sudden  change  of  manner. 

"  But  seriously,"  he  cried,  "  as  I  have  been 
telling  them  —  I  wish  your  Majesty  could 
have  heard  the  offers  they  made  us,  and 
could  have  seen  the  tears  running  down 
their  faces  when  we  assured  them  that  you 
would  return.  I  wished  a  thousand  times 
that  we  had  brought  you  with  us.  With 
you  at  our  head  we  can  sweep  the  island 
from  one  end  to  the  other.  We  will  gather 
strength  and  force  as  we  go,  as  a  landslide 
grows,  and  when  we  reach  the  capital  we  will 
strike  it  like  a  human  avalanche. 

3 


34  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"And  I  wish  you  could  have  heard  him 
speak,"  Kalonay  cried,  his  enthusiasm  ris 
ing  as  he  turned  and  pointed  with  his  hand 
at  the  priest.  "  There  is  the  leader !  He 
made  my  blood  turn  hot  with  his  speeches, 
and  when  he  had  finished,  I  used  to  find 
myself  standing  on  my  tiptoes  and  shouting 
with  the  rest.  Without  him  I  could  have 
done  nothing.  They  knew  me  too  well ;  but 
the  laziest  rascals  in  the  village  came  to 
welcome  him  again,  and  the  women  and 
men  wept  before  him  and  brought  their 
children  to  be  blessed,  and  fell  on  their 
knees  and  kissed  his  sandals.  It  was  like 
the  stories  they  tell  you  when  you  are  a 
child.  He  made  us  sob  with  regret  and 
he  filled  us  with  fresh  resolves.  Oh,  it  is 
very  well  for  you  to  smile,  you  old  cynics," 
he  cried,  smiling  at  his  own  fervor,  "but 
I  tell  you,  I  have  lived  since  I  saw  you 
last !  " 

The  priest  stood  silent  with  his  hands 
hidden  inside  his  great  sleeves,  and  his  head 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  35 

rising  erect  and  rigid  from  his  cowl.  The 
eyes  of  the  men  were  turned  upon  him 
curiously,  and  he  glanced  from  one  to  the 
other,  as  though  mistrusting  their  sympathy. 

"It  was  not  me  —  it  was  the  Church  they 
came  to  welcome.  The  fools,"  he  cried 
bitterly,  "  they  thought  they  could  destroy 
the  faith  of  the  people  hy  banishing  the 
servants  of  the  Church.  As  soon  end  a 
mother's  love  for  her  children  by  putting 
an  ocean  between  them.  For  six  years 
those  peasants  have  been  true.  I  left  them 
faithful,  I  returned  to  find  them  faithful. 
And  now  -  "  he  concluded,  looking  steadily 
at  the  King  as  though  to  hold  him  to  ac 
count,  "  and  now  they  are  to  have  their 
reward." 

The  King  bowed  his  head  gravely  in  as 
sent.  "  They  are  to  have  their  reward," 
he  repeated.  He  rose  and  with  a  wave  of 
his  hand  invited  the  priest  to  follow  him, 
and  they  walked  together  to  the  other  end 
of  the  terrace.  When  they  were  out  of 


36  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

hearing  of  the  others  the  King  seated  him 
self,  and  the  priest  halted  beside  his  chair. 

"  I  wish  to  speak  with  you,  Father,"  Louis 
said,  "  concerning  this  young  American  girl, 
Miss  Carson,  who  has  promised  to  help  us 
—  to  help  you — with  her  money.  Has  she 
said  yet  how  much  she  means  to  give  us," 
asked  the  King,  "  and  when  she  means  to 
let  us  have  it  ?  It  is  a  delicate  matter,  and 
I  do  not  wish  to  urge  the  lady,  but  we  are 
really  greatly  in  need  of  money.  Baron 
Barrat,  who  arrived  from  Paris  this  morn 
ing,  brings  back  no  substantial  aid,  although 
the  sympathy  of  the  old  nobility,  he  assures 
me,  is  with  us.  Sympathy,  however,  does 
not  purchase  Maxim  guns,  nor  pay  for  ra 
tions,  and  Madame  Zara's  visit  to  the  capital 
was,  as  you  know,  even  less  successful." 

"  Your  Majesty  has  seen  Miss  Carson, 
then  ?  "  the  priest  asked. 

"  Yes,  her  mother  and  she  have  been  stay 
ing  at  the  Continental  ever  since  they  fol 
lowed  you  here  from  Paris,  and  I  have  seen 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  37 

her  once  or  twice  during  your  absence.  The 
young  lady  seems  an  earnest  daughter  of 
our  faith,  and  she  is  deeply  in  sympathy 
with  our  effort  to  re-establish  your  order 
and  the  influence  of  the  Church  upon  the 
island.  I  have  explained  to  her  that  the 
only  way  in  which  the  Church  can  regain 
her  footing  there  is  through  my  return  to 
the  throne,  and  Miss  Carson  has  hinted  that 
she  is  willing  to  make  even  a  larger  contribu 
tion  than  the  one  she  first  mentioned.  If 
she  means  to  do  this,  it  would  be  well  if  she 
did  it  at  once." 

"  Perhaps  I  have  misunderstood  her,"  said 
the  priest,  after  a  moment's  consideration ; 
"  but  I  thought  the  sum  she  meant  to  contrib 
ute  was  to  be  given  only  after  the  mono.rchy 
has  been  formally  established,  and  that  she 
wished  whatever  she  gave  to  be  used  exclu 
sively  in  rebuilding  the  churches  and  the 
monastery.  I  do  not  grudge  it  to  your  Ma 
jesty's  purpose,  but  so  I  understood  her." 

"  Ah,  that  is  quite  possible,"  returned  Louis, 


38  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

easily ;  "  it  may  be  that  she  did  so  intend  at 
first,  but  since  I  have  talked  with  her  she  has 
shown  a  willing  disposition  to  aid  us  not  only 
later,  but  now.  My  success  means  your  suc 
cess,"  he  continued,  smiling  pleasantly  as 
he  rose  to  his  feet,  "  so  I  trust  you  will 
urge  her  to  be  prompt.  She  seems  to  have 
unlimited  resources  in  her  own  right.  Do 
you  happen  to  know  from  whence  her  money 
comes  ? " 

"  Her  mother  told  me,"  said  the  priest, 
"  that  Mr.  Carson  before  his  death  owned 
mines  and  railroads.  They  live  in  California, 
near  the  Mission  of  Saint  Francis.  I  have 
written  concerning  them  to  the  Father  Supe 
rior  there,  and  he  tells  me  that  Mr.  Carson 
died  a  very  rich  man,  and  that  he  was  a  gen 
erous  servant  of  the  Church.  His  daughter 
has  but  just  inherited  her  father's  fortune, 
and  her  one  idea  of  using  it  is  to  give  it  to 
the  Church,  as  he  would  have  done." 

The  priest  paused  and  seemed  to  consider 
what  the  King  had  just  told  him.  "  I  will 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  39 

speak  with  her,"  he  said,  "  and  ask  her  aid 
as  fully  as  she  can  give  it.  May  I  inquire 
how  far  your  Majesty  has  taken  her  into  our 
plans?" 

"  Miss  Carson  is  fully  informed,"  the  King 
replied  briefly.  "  And  if  you  wish  to  speak 
with  her  you  can  see  her  now ;  she  and  her 
mother  are  coming  to  breakfast  with  me  to 
hear  the  account  of  your  visit  to  the  island. 
You  can  speak  with  her  then  —  and,  Father," 
the  King  added,  lowering  his  eyes  and  finger 
ing  the  loose  sleeve  of  the  priest's  robe,  "  it 
would  be  well,  I  think,  to  have  this  presenta 
tion  of  the  young  nobles  immediately  after 
the  luncheon,  while  Miss  Carson  is  still  pres 
ent.  We  might  even  make  a  little  ceremony 
of  it,  and  so  show  her  that  she  is  fully  in 
our  confidence  —  that  she  is  one  of  our  most 
valued  supporters.  It  might  perhaps  quicken 
her  interest  in  the  cause." 

"  I  see  no  reason  why  that  should  not  be," 
said  the  priest,  thoughtfully,  turning  his  eyes 
to  the  sea  below  them.  "  Madame  Zara,"  he 


40  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

added,  without  moving  his  eyes,  "  will  not  be 
present." 

The  King  straightened  himself  slightly,  and 
for  a  brief  moment  of  time  looked  at  the 
priest  in  silence,  but  the  monk  continued  to 
gaze  steadily  at  the  blue  waters. 

"  Madame  Zara  will  not  be  present,"  the 
King  repeated,  coldly. 

"  There  are  a  few  fishermen  and  mountain 
eers,  your  Majesty,"  the  priest  continued, 
turning  an  unconscious  countenance  to  the 
King,  "  who  came  back  with  us  from  the 
island.  They  come  as  a  deputation  to  inform 
your  Majesty  of  the  welcome  that  waits  you, 
and  I  have  promised  them  an  audience.  If 
you  will  pardon  me  I  would  suggest  that  you 
receive  these  honest  people  at  the  same  time 
with  the  others,  and  that  his  Highness,  the 
Crown  Prince,  be  also  present,  and  that  he 
receive  them  with  you.  Their  anxiety  to  see 
him  is  only  second  to  their  desire  to  speak 
to  your  Majesty.  You  will  find  some  of  your 
most  loyal  subjects  among  these  men.  Their 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  41 

forefathers  have  been  faithful  to  your  house 
and  to  the  Church  for  many  generations." 

«  Excellent,"  said  the  King, "  I  shall  receive 
them  immediately  after  the  deputation  from 
Paris.  Consult  with  Baron  Barrat  and  Ka- 
lonay,  please,  about  the  details.  I  wish  either 
Kalonay  or  yourself  to  make  the  presentation. 
I  see  Miss  Carson  and  her  mother  coming. 
After  luncheon,  then,  at,  say,  three  o'clock- 
will  that  be  satisfactory?" 

"  As  your  Majesty  pleases,"  the  priest  an 
swered,  and  with  a  bow  he  strode  across  the 
terrace  to  where  Kalonay  stood  watching 
them. 


42  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 


n 


RS.  CARSON  and  her  daughter  came 
from  the  hotel  to  the  terrace  through 
the  hallway  which  divided  the  King's  apart 
ments.  Baron  Barrat  preceded  them  and  they 
followed  in  single  file,  Miss  Carson  walking 
first.  It  was  a  position  her  mother  always 
forced  upon  her,  and  after  people  grew  to 
know  them  they  accepted  it  as  illustrating 
Mrs.  Carson's  confidence  in  her  daughter's 
ability  to  care  for  herself  as  well  as  her  own 
wish  to  remain  in  the  background. 

Patricia  Carson,  as  she  was  named  after  her 
patron  saint,  or  "  Patty  "  Carson,  as  she  was 
called  more  frequently,  was  an  exceedingly 
pretty  girl.  She  was  tall  and  fair,  with  a 
smile  that  showed  such  confidence  in  every 
one  she  met  that  few  could  find  the  courage 
to  undeceive  her  by  being  themselves,  and  it 
was  easier,  in  the  face  of  such  an  appeal  as 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  43 

her  eyes  made  to  the  best  in  every  one,  for 
each  to  act  a  part  while  he  was  with  her. 
She  was  young,  impressionable,  and  abso 
lutely  inexperienced.  As  a  little  girl  she  had 
lived  on  a  great  ranch,  where  she  could  gallop 
from  sunrise  to  sunset  over  her  own  prairie 
land,  and  later  her  life  had  been  spent  in  a 
convent  outside  of  Paris.  She  had  but  two 
great  emotions,  her  love  for  her  father  and 
for  the  Church  which  had  nursed  her.  Her 
father's  death  had  sanctified  him  and  given 
him  a  place  in  her  heart  that  her  mother 
could  not  hold,  and  when  she  found  herself 
at  twenty-one  the  mistress  of  a  great  fortune, 
her  one  idea  as  to  the  disposal  of  it  was  to  do 
with  it  what  would  best  please  him  and  the 
Church  which  had  been  the  ruling  power  in 
the  life  of  both  of  them.  She  was  quite  un 
conscious  of  her  beauty,  and  her  mode  of 
speaking  was  simple  and  eager. 

She  halted  as  she  came  near  the  King,  and 
resting  her  two  hands  on  the  top  of  her  lace 
parasol,  nodded  pleasantly  to  him  and  to  the 


44  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

others.  She  neither  courtesied  nor  offered 
him  her  hand,  but  seemed  to  prefer  this  mid 
dle  course,  leaving  them  to  decide  whether 
she  acted  as  she  did  from  ignorance  or  from 
choice. 

As  the  King  stepped  forward  to  greet  her 
mother,  Miss  Carson  passed  him  and  moved 
on  to  where  the  Father  Superior  stood  apart 
from  the  others,  talking  earnestly  with  the 
Prince.  What  he  was  saying  was  of  an 
unwelcome  nature,  for  Kalonay's  face  wore 
an  expression  of  boredom  and  polite  protest 
which  changed  instantly  to  one  of  delight 
when  he  saw  Miss  Carson.  The  girl  hesitated 
and  made  a  deep  obeisance  to  the  priest. 

"  I  am  afraid  I  interrupt  you,"  she  said. 

"  Not  at  all,"  Kalonay  assured  her,  laugh 
ing.  "  It  is  a  most  welcome  interruption. 
The  good  father  has  been  finding  fault  with 
me,  as  usual,  and  I  am  quite  willing  to  change 
the  subject." 

The  priest  smiled  kindly  on  the  girl,  and 
while  he  exchanged  some  words  of  welcome 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  45 

with  her,  Kalonay  brought  up  one  of  the  huge 
wicker  chairs,  and  she  seated  herself  with  her 
back  to  the  others,  facing  the  two  men,  who 
stood  leaning  against  the  broad  balustrade. 
They  had  been  fellow-conspirators  sufficiently 
long  for  them  to  have  grown  to  know  each 
other  well,  and  the  priest,  so  far  from  regard 
ing  her  as  an  intruder,  hailed  her  at  once  as 
a  probable  ally,  and  endeavored  to  begin  again 
where  he  had  ceased  speaking. 

"  Do  you  not  agree  with  me,  Miss  Carson  ?  " 
he  asked.  "  I  am  telling  the  Prince  that  zeal 
is  not  enough,  and  that  high  ideals,  unless 
they  are  accompanied  by  good  conduct,  are 
futile.  I  want  him  to  change,  to  be  more 
sober,  more  strict  —  " 

"  Oh,  you  must  not  ask  me,"  Miss  Carson 
said  hurriedly,  smiling  and  shaking  her  head. 
"  We  are  working  for  only  one  thing,  are  we 
not  ?  Beyond  that  you  know  nothing  of  me, 
and  I  know  nothing  of  you.  I  came  to  hear 
of  your  visit,"  she  continued ;  "  am  I  to  be 
told  anything  ? "  she  asked  eagerly,  looking 


46  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

from  one  to  the  other.  "  It  has  been  such  an 
anxious  two  weeks.  We  imagined  all  man 
ner  of  things  had  happened  to  you." 

Kalonay  laughed  happily.  "  The  Father  was 
probably  never  safer  in  his  life,"  he  said. 
"  They  took  us  to  their  hearts  like  brothers. 
They  might  have  suffocated  us  with  kindness, 
but  we  were  in  no  other  danger." 

"  Then  you  are  encouraged,  Father?"  she 
asked,  turning  to  the  priest.  "  You  found 
them  loyal  ?  Your  visit  was  all  you  hoped, 
you  can  depend  upon  them  ?  " 

"  We  can  count  upon  them  absolutely,"  the 
monk  assured  her.  "  We  shall  start  on  our 
return  voyage  at  once,  in  a  day,  as  soon  as  his 
Majesty  gives  the  word." 

"There  are  so  many  things  I  want  to 
know,"  the  girl  said  ;  "  but  I  have  no  right  to 
ask,"  she  added,  looking  up  at  him  doubtfully. 

"You  have  every  right,"  the  monk  answered. 
"  You  have  certainly  earned  it.  Without  the 
help  you  gave  us  we  could  not  have  moved. 
You  have  been  more  than  generous  — 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  47 

Miss  Carson  interrupted  him  with  an  im 
patient  lifting  of  her  head.  "  That  sort  of 
generosity  is  nothing,"  she  said.  "  With  you 
men  it  is  different.  You  are  all  risking  some 
thing.  You  are  actually  helping,  while  I  must 
sit  still  and  wait.  I  hope,  Father,"  she  said, 
smiling,  "  it  is  not  wrong  for  me  to  wish  I 
were  a  man." 

"  Wrong ! "  exclaimed  Kalonay,  in  a  tone  of 
mock  dismay,  "  of  course  it 's  wrong.  It 's 
wicked." 

The  monk  turned  and  looked  coldly  over 
his  shoulder  at  Kalonay,  and  the  Prince 
laughed. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  he  said,  "  but  we  are 
told  to  be  contented  with  our  lot,"  he  argued, 
impenitently.  " '  He  only  is  a  slave  who  com 
plains,'  and  that  is  true  even  if  a  heretic  did 
say  it." 

The  monk  shook  his  head  and  turned  again 
to  Miss  Carson  with  a  tolerant  smile. 

"  He  is  very  young,"  he  said,  as  though 
Kalonay  did  not  hear  him,  "  and  wild  and 


48  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

foolish — and  yet,"  he  added  doubtfully,  "I 
find  I  love  the  boy."  He  regarded  the  young 
man  with  a  kind,  but  impersonal  scrutiny,  as 
though  he  were  a  picture  or  a  statue.  "  Some 
times  I  imagine  he  is  all  I  might  have  been," 
he  said,  "  had  not  God  given  me  the  strength 
to  overcome  myself.  He  has  never  denied 
himself  in  anything ;  he  is  as  wilful  and  capri 
cious  as  a  girl.  He  makes  a  noble  friend, 
Miss  Carson,  and  a  generous  enemy  ;  but  he  is 
spoiled  irretrievably  by  good  fortune  and  good 
living  and  good  health."  The  priest  looked  at 
the  young  man  with  a  certain  sad  severity. 
" '  Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not  excel,'  " 
he  said. 

The  girl,  in  great  embarrassment,  turned 
her  head  away,  glancing  from  the  ocean  to  the 
sky  ;  but  Kalonay  seated  himself  coolly  on  the 
broad  balustrade  of  the  terrace  with  his  hands 
on  his  hips,  and  his  heels  resting  on  the 
marble  tiling,  and  clicked  the  soles  of  his 
boots  together. 

"  Oh,  I  have  had  my  bad  days,  too,  Father," 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  49 

he  said.  He  turned  his  head  on  one  side,  and 
pressed  his  lips  together,  looking  down. 

"  Unstable  as  water  —  that  is  quite  pos 
sible,"  he  said,  with  an  air  of  consideration ; 
"  but  spoiled  by  good  fortune  —  oh,  no,  that  is 
not  fair.  Do  you  call  it  good  fortune,  sir," 
he  laughed,  "to  be  an  exile  at  twenty-eight? 
Is  it  good  fortune  to  be  too  poor  to  pay  your 
debts,  and  too  lazy  to  work ;  to  be  the  last  of 
a  great  name,  and  to  have  no  chance  to  add 
to  the  glory  of  it,  and  no  means  to  keep  its 
dignity  fresh  and  secure  ?  Do  you  fancy  I 
like  to  see  myself  drifting  farther  and  farther 
away  from  the  old  standards  and  the  old  tradi 
tions  ;  to  have  English  brewers  and  German 
Jew  bankers  taking  the  place  I  should  have, 
buying  titles  with  their  earnings  and  snubbing 
me  because  I  can  only  hunt  when  some  one 
gives  me  a  mount,  and  because  I  choose  to 
take  a  purse  instead  of  a  cup  when  we  shoot 
at  Monte  Carlo  ? " 

"  What  child's  talk  is  this  ?  "  interrupted 
the  priest,  angrily.  "  A  thousand  horses  can- 

4 


50  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

not  make  a  man  noble,  nor  was  poverty  ever 
ignoble.  You  talk  like  a  weak  boy.  Every 
word  you  say  is  your  own  condemnation. 
Why  should  you  complain  ?  Your  bed  is  of 
your  own  making.  The  other  prodigal  was 
forced  to  herd  with  the  swine  —  you  have 
chosen  to  herd  with  them." 

The  girl  straightened  herself  and  half  rose 
from  her  chair. 

"  You  are  boring  Miss  Carson  with  my 
delinquencies,"  said  the  Prince,  sternly.  His 
face  was  flushed,  and  he  did  not  look  either  at 
the  girl  or  at  the  priest. 

"  But  the  prodigal's  father  ? "  said  Miss 
Carson,  smiling  at  the  older  man.  "  Did  he 
stand  over  him  and  upbraid  him  ?  You  re 
member,  he  went  to  meet  him  when  he  was 
yet  a  great  way  off.  That  was  it,  was  it  not, 
Father  ?  " 

"  Of  course  he  did,"  cried  Kalonay,  laugh 
ing  like  a  boy,  and  slipping  lightly  to  the 
terrace.  "  He  met  him  half  way  and  gave 
him  the  best  he  had."  He  stepped  to  Miss 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  51 

Carson's  side  and  the  two  young  people  moved 
away  smiling,  and  the  priest,  seeing  that  they 
were  about  to  escape  him,  cried  eagerly,  "  But 
that  prodigal  had  repented.  This  one  —  " 

"  Let 's  run,"  cried  the  Prince.  "  He  will 
get  the  best  of  us  if  we  stay.  He  always  gets 
the  best  of  me.  He  has  been  abusing  me  that 
way  for  two  weeks  now,  and  he  is  always 
sorry  afterward.  Let  us  leave  him  alone  to 
his  sorrow  and  remorse." 

Kalonay  walked  across  the  terrace  with 
Miss  Carson,  bending  above  her  with  what 
would  have  seemed  to  an  outsider  almost  a 
proprietary  right.  She  did  not  appear  to 
notice  it,  but  looked  at  him  frankly  and  lis 
tened  to  what  he  had  to  say  with  interest. 
He  was  speaking  rapidly,  and  as  he  spoke  he 
glanced  shyly  at  her  as  though  seeking  her 
approbation,  and  not  boldly,  as  he  was  accus 
tomed  to  do  when  he  talked  with  either  men 
or  women.  To  look  at  her  with  admiration 
was  such  a  cheap  form  of  appreciation,  and 
one  so  distasteful  to  her,  that  had  he  known 


52  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

it,  Kalonay's  averted  eyes  were  more  of  a 
compliment  than  any  words  he  could  have 
spoken.  His  companions  who  had  seen  him 
with  other  women  knew  that  his  manner  to 
her  was  not  his  usual  manner,  and  that  he 
gave  her  something  he  did  not  give  to  the 
others  ;  that  he  was  more  discreet  and  less 
ready,  and  less  at  ease. 

The  Prince  Kalonay  had  first  met  Miss 
Carson  and  her  mother  by  chance  in  Paris, 
at  the  rooms  of  Father  Paul,  where  they  had 
each  gone  on  the  same  errand,  and  since  that 
meeting  his  whole  manner  toward  the  two 
worlds  in  which  he  lived  had  altered  so 
strangely,  that  mere  acquaintances  noticed 
the  change. 

Before  he  had  met  her,  the  little  the  Priest 
had  said  concerning  her  and  her  zeal  for  their 
common  desire  had  piqued  his  curiosity,  and 
his  imagination  had  been  aroused  by  the  pic 
ture  of  a  romantic  young  woman  giving  her 
fortune  to  save  the  souls  of  the  people  of 
Messina;  his  people  whom  he  regarded  and 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  53 

who  regarded  him  less  as  a  feudal  lord  than 
as  a  father  and  a  comrade.  He  had  pictured 
her  as  a  nervous,  angular  woman  with  a  pale, 
ascetic  face,  and  with  the  restless  eyes  of  an 
enthusiast,  dressed  in  black  and  badly  dressed, 
and  with  a  severe  and  narrow  intelligence. 
But  he  had  prepared  himself  to  forgive  her 
personality,  for  the  sake  of  the  high  and  gen 
erous  impulse  that  inspired  her.  And  when 
he  was  presented  to  her  as  she  really  was,  and 
found  her  young,  lovable,  and  nobly  fair,  the 
shock  of  wonder  and  delight  had  held  him 
silent  during  the  whole  course  of  her  inter 
view  with  the  priest ;  and  when  she  had  left 
them  his  brain  was  in  a  tumult  and  was  filled 
with  memories  of  her  words  and  gestures,  and 
of  the  sweet  fearlessness  of  her  manner. 
Beautiful  women  he  had  known  before  as 
beautiful  women,  but  the  saving  grace  in  his 
nature  had  never  before  been  so  deeply  roused 
by  what  was  fine  as  well  as  beautiful.  It 
seemed  as  though  it  were  too  complete  and 
perfect.  For  he  assured  himself  that  she  pos- 


54  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

sessed  everything — those  qualities  which  he 
had  never  valued  before  because  he  believed 
them  to  be  unattainable,  and  those  others 
which  he  had  made  his  idols.  She  was  with 
him,  mind  and  heart  and  soul,  in  the  one 
desire  of  his  life  that  he  took  seriously ;  she 
was  of  his  religion,  she  was  more  noble  than 
his  noble  sisters,  and  she  was  more  beautiful 
than  the  day.  In  the  first  glow  of  the  meet 
ing  it  seemed  to  him  as  though  fate  had  called 
them  to  do  this  work  together, —  she  from  the 
far  shore  of  the  Pacific,  and  he  from  his  rocky 
island  in  the  Middle  Sea.  And  he  saw  with 
cruel  distinctness,  that  if  there  were  one  thing 
wanting,  it  was  himself.  He  worshipped  her 
before  he  had  bowed  his  first  good-bye  to  her, 
and  that  night  he  walked  for  miles  up  and 
down  the  long  lengths  of  the  avenue  of  the 

x 

Champs-Elysees,  facing  the  great  change  that 
she  had  brought  into  his  life,  but  knowing 
himself  to  be  utterly  unfit  for  her  coming. 
He  felt  like  an  unworthy  steward  caught  at 
his  master's  return  unprepared,  with  ungirt 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  55 

loins,  and  unlighted  lamp.  Nothing  he  had 
done  since  he  was  a  child  gave  him  the  right 
to  consider  himself  her  equal.  He  was  not 
blinded  by  the  approaches  which  other  daugh 
ters  and  the  mothers  of  daughters  had  made 
him.  He  knew  that  what  was  enough  to 
excuse  many  things  in  their  eyes,  might  find 
no  apology  in  hers.  He  looked  back  with  the 
awakening  of  a  child  at  the  irrevocable  acts 
in  his  life  that  could  not  be  altered  nor  dug 
up  nor  hidden  away.  They  marked  the  road 
he  had  trodden  like  heavy  milestones,  telling 
his  story  to  every  passer-by.  She  could  read 
them,  as  every  one  else  could  read  them.  He 
had  wasted  his  substance,  he  had  bartered  his 
birthright  for  a  moment's  pleasure';  there  was 
no  one  so  low  and  despicable  who  could  not 
call  him  comrade,  to  whom  he  had  not  given 
himself  without  reserve.  There  was  nothing 
left,  and  now  the  one  thing  he  had  ever 
wanted  had  come,  and  had  found  him  like  a 
bankrupt,  his  credit  wasted  and  his  coffers 
empty.  He  had  placed  himself  at  the  beck 


56  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

and  call  of  every  idle  man  and  woman  in  Paris, 
arid  he  was  as  common  as  the  great  clock- 
face  that  hangs  above  the  Boulevards. 

Miss  Carson's  feelings  toward  Kalonay  were 
not  of  her  own  choosing,  and  had  passed 
through  several  stages.  When  they  had  first 
met  she  had  thought  it  most  sad  that  so  care 
less  and  unprincipled  a  person  should  chance 
to  hold  so  important  a  part  in  the  task  she 
had  set  herself  to  do.  She  knew  his  class 
only  by  hearsay,  but  she  placed  him  in  it,  and, 
accordingly,  at  once  dismissed  him  as  a  per 
son  from  her  mind.  Kalonay  had  never 
shown  her  that  he  loved  her,  except  by  those 
signs  which  any  woman  can  read  and  which 
no  man  can  conceal  ;  but  he  did  not  make  love 
to  her,  and  it  was  that  which  first  prepossessed 
her  in  his  favor.  One  or  two  other  men  who 
knew  of  her  fortune,  and  to  whom  she  had 
given  as  little  encouragement  as  she  had  to 
Kalonay,  had  been  less  considerate.  But  his 
attitude  toward  her  was  always  that  of  a 
fellow-worker  in  the  common  cause.  He 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  57 

treated  her  with  a  gratitude  for  the  help  she 
meant  to  give  his  people  which  much  embar 
rassed  her.  His  seriousness  pleased  her  with 
him,  seeing,  as  she  did,  that  it  was  not  his 
nature  to  be  serious,  and  his  enthusiasm  and 
love  for  his  half-civilized  countrymen  in 
creased  her  interest  in  them,  and  her  liking 
for  him.  She  could  not  help  but  admire  the 
way  in  which  he  accepted,  without  forcing  her 
to  make  it  any  plainer,  the  fact  that  he  held 
no  place  in  her  thoughts.  And  then  she 
found  that  he  began  to  hold  more  of  a  place 
in  her  thoughts  than  she  had  supposed  any 
man  could  hold  of  whom  she  knew  so  little, 
and  of  whom  the  little  she  knew  was  so  ill. 
She  missed  him  when  she  went  to  the  priest's 
and  found  that  he  had  not  sent  for  Kalonay 
to  bear  his  part  in  their  councils  ;  and  at  times 
she  felt  an  unworthy  wish  to  hear  Kalonay 
speak  the  very  words  she  had  admired  him 
for  keeping  from  her.  And  at  last  she  learned 
the  truth  that  she  did  love  him,  and  it  fright 
ened  her,  and  made  her  miserable  and  happy. 


58  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

They  had  not  seen  each  other  since  he  had 
left  Paris  for  Messina,  and  though  they  spoke 
now  only  of  his  mission  to  the  island,  there 
was  back  of  what  they  said  the  joy  for  each 
of  them  of  being  together  again  and  of  find 
ing  that  it  meant  so  much.  What  it  might 
mean  to  the  other,  neither  knew. 

For  some  little  time  the  King  followed  the 
two  young  people  with  his  eyes,  and  then 
joined  them,  making  signs  to  Kalonay  that  he 
wished  him  to  leave  them  together ;  but  Kalo 
nay  remained  blind  to  his  signals,  and  Barrat, 
seeing  that  it  was  not  a  t$te-d-tcte,  joined  them 
also.  When  he  did  so  Kalonay  asked  the 
King  for  a  word,  and  laying  his  hand  upon 
his  arm  walked  with  him  down  the  terrace, 
pointing  ostensibly  to  where  the  yacht  lay 
in  the  harbor.  Louis  answered  his  panto 
mime  with  an  appropriate  gesture,  and  then 
asked  sharply,  "  Well,  what  is  it  ?  Why 
did  you  bring  me  here  ?  And  what  do  you 
mean  by  staying  on  when  yon  see  you  are 
not  wanted?" 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  59 

They  were  some  distance  from  the  others. 
Kalonay  smiled  and  made  a  slight  bow. 
"  Your  Majesty,"  he  began,  with  polite  em 
phasis.  The  King  looked  at  him  curiously. 

"  In  the  old  days  under  similar  circum 
stances,"  the  Prince  continued,  with  the  air 
of  a  courtier  rather  than  that  of  an  equal, 
"  had  I  thought  of  forming  an  alliance  by 
marriage,  I  should  have  come  to  your  Majesty 
first  and  asked  your  gracious  approval.  But 
those  days  are  past,  and  we  are  living  at  the 
end  of  the  century ;  and  we  do  such  things 
differently."  He  straightened  himself  and 
returned  the  King's  look  of  amused  interest 
with  one  as  cynical  as  his  own.  "  What  I 
wanted  to  tell  you,  Louis,"  he  said  quietly, 
"is  that  I  mean  to  ask  Miss  Carson  to  become 
the  Princess  Kalonay." 

The  King  raised  his  head  quickly  and 
stared  at  the  younger  man  with  a  look  of 
distaste  and  surprise.  He  gave  an  incredu 
lous  laugh. 

"Indeed?"  he  said  at  last.    "There  was 


60  THE   KIN  GPS  JACKAL 

always    something    about    rich   women    you 
could  never  resist." 

The  Prince  made  his  acknowledgment 
with  a  shrug  of  his  shoulders  and  smiled 
indifferently. 

"  I  did  n't  expect  you  to  understand,"  he 
said.  "  It  does  seem  odd ;  it 's  quite  as 
difficult  for  me  to  understand  as  for  you.  I 
have  been  through  it  a  great  many  times, 
and  I  thought  I  knew  all  there  was  of  it. 
But  now  it  seems  different.  No,  it  does  not 
seem  different,"  he  corrected  himself ;  "  it  is 
different,  and  I  love  the  lady  and  I  mean  to 
ask  her  to  do  me  the  honor  to  marry  me.  I 
did  n't  expect  you  to  understand,  I  don't  care 
if  you  do.  I  only  wanted  to  warn  you." 

"  Warn  me  ? "  interrupted  the  King,  with  an 
unpleasant  smile.  "  Indeed  !  against  what  ? 
Your  tone  is  a  trifle  peremptory  —  but  you 
are  interesting,  most  interesting !  Kalonay 
in  a  new  role,  Kalonay  in  love !  Most  inter 
esting  !  Warn  me  against  what  ? "  he  re 
peated  sharply. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  61 

"  Your  Majesty  has  a  certain  manner,"  the 
Prince  began,  with  a  pretence  of  hesitation, 
"  a  charm  of  manner,  I  might  say,  which  is 
proverbial.  It  is,  we  know,  attractive  to 
women.  Every  woman  acknowledges  it.  But 
your  Majesty  is  sometimes  too  gracious.  He 
permits  himself  to  condescend  to  many 
women,  to  any  woman,  to  women  of  all 
classes  —  " 

"  That  will  do,"  said  the  King  ;  "  what  do 
you  mean  ?  " 

"  What  I  mean  is  this,"  said  Kalonay, 
lowering  his  voice  and  looking  into  the  King's 
half-closed  eyes.  "  You  can  have  all  of  Miss 
Carson's  money  you  want  —  all  you  can  get. 
I  don't  want  it.  If  I  am  to  marry  her  at 
all,  I  am  not  marrying  her  for  her  money. 
You  can't  believe  that.  It  isn't  essential 
that  you  should.  But  I  want  you  to  leave 
the  woman  I  hope  to  make  my  wife  alone. 
I  will  allow  no  pretty  speeches,  nor  royal 
attentions.  She  can  give  her  money  where 
she  pleases,  now  and  always ;  but  I  '11  not 


62  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

have  her  eyes  opened  to  —  as  you  can  open 
them.  I  will  not  have  her  annoyed.  And 
if  she  is  —  " 

"  Ah,  and  if  she  is  V  "  challenged  the  King. 
His  eyes  were  wide  apart  now  and  his  lips 
were  parted  and  drawn  back  from  his  teeth, 
like  a  snarling  cat  — 

"  I  shall  hold  whoever  annoys  her  respon 
sible,"  Kalonay  concluded  impersonally. 

There  was  a  moment's  pause,  during  which 
the  two  men  stood  regarding  each  other 
warily. 

Then  the  King  stiffened  his  shoulders  and 
placed  his  hands  slowly  behind  his  back. 
"  That  sounds,  my  dear  Kalonay,"  he  said, 
"  almost  like  a  threat." 

The  younger  man  laughed  insolently.  "I 
meant  it,  too,  your  Majesty,"  he  answered, 
bowing  mockingly  and  backing  away. 

As  the  King's  guests  seated  themselves  at 
his  breakfast-table  Louis  smiled  upon  them 
with  a  gracious  glance  of  welcome  and  ap- 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  63 

proval.  His  manner  was  charmingly  conde 
scending,  and  in  his  appearance  there  was 
nothing  more  serious  than  an  anxiety  for 
their  better  entertainment  and  a  certain  ani 
mal  satisfaction  in  the  food  upon  his  plate. 
In  reality  his  eyes  were  distributing  the 
people  at  the  table  before  him  into  elements 
favorable  or  unfavorable  to  his  plans,  and  in 
his  mind  he  shuffled  them  and  their  values 
for  him  or  against  him  as  a  gambler  arranges 
and  rearranges  the  cards  in  his  hand.  He 
saw  himself  plainly  as  his  own  highest  card, 
and  Barrat  and  Erhaupt  as  willing  but  medi 
ocre  accomplices.  In  Father  Paul  and  Kalo- 
nay  he  recognized  his  most  powerful  allies, 
or  most  dangerous  foes.  Miss  Carson  meant 
nothing  to  him  but  a  source  from  which  he 
could  draw  the  sinews  of  war.  What  would 
become  of  her  after  the  farce  was  ended,  he 
did  not  consider.  He  was  not  capable  of 
comprehending  either  her  or  her  motives, 
and  had  he  concerned  himself  about  her  at 
all,  he  would  have  probably  thought  that  she 


64  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

was  more  of  a  fool  than  the  saint  she  pre 
tended  to  be,  and  that  she  had  come  to  their 
assistance  more  because  she  wished  to  be 
near  a  Prince  and  a  King  than  because  she 
cared  for  the  souls  of  sixty  thousand  peas 
ants.  That  she  would  surely  lose  her  money, 
and  could  hardly  hope  to  escape  from  them 
without  losing  her  good  name,  did  not  con 
cern  him.  It  was  not  his  duty  to  look  after 
the  reputation  of  any  American  heiress  who 
thought  she  could  afford  to  be  unconven 
tional.  She  had  a  mother  to  do  that  for  her, 
and  she  was  pretty  enough,  he  concluded,  to 
excuse  many  things,  —  so  pretty  that  he  won 
dered  if  he  might  brave  the  Countess  Zara 
and  offer  Miss  Carson  the  attentions  to 
which  Kalonay  had  made  such  arrogant  ob 
jections.  The  King  smiled  at  the  thought, 
and  let  his  little  eyes  fall  for  a  moment  on  the 
tall  figure  of  the  girl  with  its  crown  of  heavy 
golden  hair,  and  on  her  clever,  earnest  eyes. 
She  was  certainly  worth  waiting  for,  and  in 
the  meanwhile  she  was  virtually  unprotected 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  65 

and  surrounded  by  his  own  people.  Accord 
ing  to  his  translation  of  her  acts  she  had 
already  offered  him  every  encouragement, 
and  had  placed  herself  in  a  position  which 
to  his  understanding  of  the  world  could  have 
but  one  interpretation.  What  Kalonay's 
sudden  infatuation  might  mean  he  could  not 
foresee  ;  whether  it  promised  good  or  threat 
ened  evil,  he  could  only  guess,  but  he  de 
cided  that  the  young  man's  unwonted  show 
of  independence  of  the  morning  must  be 
punished.  His  claim  to  exclusive  proprie 
torship  in  the  young  girl  struck  the  King 
as  amusing,  but  impertinent.  It  would  be 
easy  sailing  in  spite  of  all,  he  decided ;  for 
somewhere  up  above  them  in  the  hotel  sat 
the  unbidden  guest,  the  woman  against  whom 
Father  Paul  had  raised  the  ban  of  expul 
sion,  but  who  had,  nevertheless,  tricked  both 
him  and  the  faithful  Jackal. 

The  breakfast  was  drawing  to  an  end  and 
the  faithful  Niccolas  was  the  only  servant 
remaining  in  the  room.  The  talk  had  grown 


66  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

intimate  and  touched  openly  upon  the  success 
ful  visit  of  the  two  ambassadors  to  the  island, 
and  of  Barrat's  mission  to  Paris.  Of  Madame 
Zara's  visit  to  the  northern  half  of  the  island, 
which  was  supposed  to  have  been  less  success 
ful,  no  mention  was  made. 

Louis  felt  as  he  listened  to  them  like  a 
man  at  a  play,  who  knows  that  at  a  word 
from  him  the  complications  would  cease,  and 
that  were  he  to  rise  in  the  stalls  and  explain 
them  away,  and  point  out  the  real  hero  and 
denounce  the  villain,  the  curtain  would  have 
to  ring  down  on  the  instant.  He  gave  a 
little  purr  of  satisfaction,  and  again  mar 
shalled  his  chances  before  him  and  smiled  to 
find  them  good.  He  was  grandly  at  peace 
with  himself  and  with  the  world.  Whatever 
happened,  he  was  already  richer  by  some 
300,000  francs,  and  in  a  day,  if  he  could  keep 
the  American  girl  to  her  promise,  would  be 
as  rich  again.  When  the  farce  of  landing  his 
expedition  had  been  played  he  would  be  free, 
—  free  to  return  to  his  clubs  and  to  his  bou- 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  67 

levards  and  boudoirs,  with  money  enough  to 
silence  the  most  insolent  among  his  creditors, 
and  with  renewed  credit ;  with  even  a  certain 
glamour  about  him  of  one  who  had  dared  to 
do,  even  though  he  had  failed  in  the  doing, 
who  had  shaken  off  the  slothfulness  of  ease 
and  had  chosen  to  risk  his  life  for  his  throne 
witli  a  smoking  rifle  in  his  hand,  until  a  trai 
tor  had  turned  fortune  against  him. 

The  King  was  amused  to  find  that  this 
prospect  pleased  him  vastly.  He  was  sur 
prised  to  discover  that  careless  as  he  thought 
himself  to  be  to  public  opinion,  he  was  still 
capable  of  caring  for  its  approbation ;  but  he 
consoled  himself  for  this  weakness  by  arguing 
that  it  was  only  because  the  approbation 
would  be  his  by  a  trick  that  it  pleased  him  to 
think  of.  Perhaps  some  of  his  royal  cousins, 
in  the  light  of  his  bold  intent,  might  take  him 
under  their  protection  instead  of  neglecting 
him  shamefully  as  they  had  done  in  the  past. 
His  armed  expedition  might  open  certain 
doors  to  him;  his  name,  and  he  smiled 


68  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

grimly,  as  he  imagined  it,  would  i*ing  through 
out  Europe  as  the  Soldier  King,  as  the  modern 
disciple  of  the  divine  right  of  kings.  He  saw, 
in  his  mind's  eye,  even  the  possibility  of  a 
royal  alliance  and  a  pension  from  one  of  the 
great  Powers.  No  matter  where  he  looked 
he  could  see  nothing  but  gain  to  himself,  more 
power  for  pleasure,  more  chances  of  greater 
fortune  in  the  future,  and  while  his  lips 
assented  to  what  the  others  said,  and  his  eyes 
thanked  them  for  some  expression  of  loyalty 
or  confidence,  he  saw  himself  in  dreams  as 
bright  as  an  absinthe  drinker's,  back  in  his 
beloved  Paris:  in  the  Champs-Ely s^es  behind 
fine  horses,  lolling  from  a  silk  box  at  the 
opera,  dealing  baccarat  at  the  Jockey  Club, 
or  playing  host  to  some  beautiful  woman  of 
the  hour,  in  the  new  home  he  would  establish 
for  her  in  the  discreet  and  leafy  borders  of 
the  Bois. 

He  had  forgotten  his  guests  and  the  mo 
ment.  He  had  forgotten  that  there  were 
difficulties  yet  to  overcome,  and  with  a  short, 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  69 

indrawn  sigh  of  pleasure,  lie  threw  back  his 
head  and  smiled  arrogantly  upon  the  sunny 
terrace  and  the  green  palins  and  the  brilliant 
blue  sea,  as  though  he  challenged  the  whole 
beautiful  world  before  him  to  do  aught  but 
minister  to  his  success  and  contribute  to  his 
pleasures. 

And  at  once,  as  though  in  answer  to  his 
challenge,  a  tall,  slim  young  man  sprang 
lightly  up  the  steps  of  the  terrace,  passed  the 
bewildered  guards  with  a  cheery  nod,  and 
striding  before  the  open  windows  knocked 
with  his  fist  upon  the  portals  of  the  door,  as 
sharply  and  as  confidently  as  though  the 
King's  shield  had  hung  there,  and  he  had 
struck  it  with  a  lance. 

The  King's  dream  shattered  and  faded 
away  at  the  sound,  and  he  moved  uneasily  in 
his  chair.  He  had  the  gambler's  superstitious 
regard  for  trifles,  and  this  invasion  of  his 
privacy  by  a  confident  stranger  filled  him 
with  sudden  disquiet. 

He  saw  Kalonay  staring  at  the  open  win- 


70  THE   KING'S  JACKAL 

(lows  with  an  expression  of  astonishment  and 
dismay. 

"  Who  is  it  ? "  the  King  asked  peevishly. 
"  What  are  you  staring  at  ?  How  did  he  get 
in?" 

Kalonay  turned  on  Barrat,  sitting  at  his 
right.  "  Did  you  see  him  ? "  he  asked. 
Barrat  nodded  gloomily. 

"  The  devil ! "  exclaimed  the  Prince,  as 
though  Barrat  had  confirmed  his  guess.  "  1 
beg  your  pardon,"  he  said,  nodding  his  head 
toward  the  women.  He  pushed  back  his 
chair  and  stood  irresolutely  with  his  napkin 
in  his  hand.  "  Tell  him  we  are  not  in,  Nic- 
colas,"  he  commanded. 

"  He  saw  us  as  he  passed  the  window,"  the 
Baron  objected. 

"  Say  we  are  at  breakfast  then.  I  will  see 
him  myself  in  a  moment.  What  shall  1  tell 
him  ?  "  he  asked,  turning  to  Barrat.  "  Do  you 
think  he  knows  ?  He  must  know,  they  have 
told  him  in  Paris." 

"  You  are  keeping  us  waiting,"  said  the 
King.  "  What  is  it  ?  Who  is  this  man  ? " 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  71 

"An  American,  named  Gordon.  He  is  a 
correspondent,"  Kalonay  answered,  without 
turning  his  head.  His  eyes  were  still  fixed 
on  the  terrace  as  though  he  had  seen  a  ghost. 

The  King  slapped  his  hand  on  the  arm  of 
the  chair.  "You  promised  me,"  he  said, 
"  that  we  should  be  free  from  that  sort  of 
thing.  That  is  why  I  agreed  to  come  here 
instead  of  going  to  Algiers.  Go  out,  Barrat, 
and  send  him  away." 

Barrat  pressed  his  lips  together  and  shook 
his  head. 

"  You  can't  send  him  away  like  that," 
he  said.  "  He  is  a  very  important  young 
man." 

"  Find  out  how  much  he  will  take  then," 
exclaimed  the  King,  angrily,  "  and  give  it  to 
him.  I  can  better  afford  to  pay  blackmail  to 
any  amount  than  have  my  plans  spoiled  now 
by  the  newspapers.  Give  him  what  he  wants 
—  a  fur  coat  —  they  always  wear  fur  coats,  or 
five  thousand  francs,  or  something  —  any 
thing —  but  get  rid  of  him." 


72  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

Barrat  stirred  uneasily  in  his  chair  and 
shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  He  is  not  a  boule 
vard  journalist,"  he  replied  sulkily. 

"  Your  Majesty  is  thinking  of  the  Hun 
garian  Jews  at  Vienna,"  explained  Kalonay, 
"  who  live  on  chantage  and  the  Monte  Carlo 
propaganda  fund.  This  man  is  not  in  their 
class ;  he  is  not  to  be  bought.  I  said  he  was 
an  American." 

"  An  American  ! "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Carson 
and  her  daughter,  exchanging  rapid  glances. 
"  Is  it  Archie  Gordon  you  mean  ? "  the  girl 
asked.  "  I  thought  he  was  in  China." 

"  That  is  the  man  —  Archie  Gordon.  He 
writes  books  and  explores  places,"  Kalonay 
answered. 

"  I  know  him.  He  wrote  a  book  on  the 
slave  trade  in  the  Congo,"  contributed  Col 
onel  Erhaupt.  "  I  met  him  at  Zanzibar. 
What  docs  he  want  with  us  ? " 

"  He  was  in  Yokohama  when  the  Japanese- 
Chinese  war  broke  out,"  said  Kalonay,  turn 
ing  to  the  King,  "  and  he  cabled  a  London 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  73 

paper  he  would  follow  the  war  for  it  if  they 
paid  him  a  hundred  a  week.  He  meant 
American  dollars,  but  they  thought  he  meant 
pounds,  so  they  cabled  back  that  they  'd  pay 
one  half  that  sum.  He  answered,  "  One  hun 
dred  or  nothing,"  and  they  finally  assented  to 
that,  and  he  started ;  and  when  the  first  week's 
remittance  arrived,  and  he  received  five  hun 
dred  dollars  instead  of  the  one  hundred  he 
expected,  he  sent  back  the  difference." 

"  What  a  remarkable  young  man ! "  ex 
claimed  the  King.  "  He  is  much  too  good  for 
daily  wear.  "We  don't  want  any  one  like  that 
around  here,  do  we  ?  " 

"  I  know  Mr.  Gordon  very  well,"  said  Miss 
Carson.  "  He  lived  in  San  Francisco  before 
he  came  East.  He  was  always  at  our  house, 
and  was  a  great  friend  of  the  family;  wasn't 
he,  mother  ?  We  have  n't  seen  him  for  two 
years  now,  but  I  know  he  would  n't  spoil  our 
plans  for  the  sake  of  his  paper,  if  he  knew  we 
were  in  earnest,  if  he  understood  that  every 
thing  depended  upon  its  being  kept  a  secret." 


74  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  We  are  not  certain  that  he  knows  any 
thing,"  the  King  urged.  "  He  may  not  have 
come  here  to  see  us.  1  think  Father  Paul 
should  talk  with  him  first." 

"1  was  going  to  suggest,"  said  Miss  Car 
son,  with  some  hesitation,  "  that  if  I  spoke  to 
him  I  might  be  able  to  put  it  to  him  in  such 
a  way  that  he  would  see  how  necessary  it  —  " 

"  Oh,  excellent,"  exclaimed  the  King, 
eagerly,  and  rising  to  his  feet ;  "  if  you  only 
would  be  so  kind,  Miss  Carson." 

Kalonay,  misunderstanding  the  situation 
altogether,  fastened  his  eyes  upon  the  table 
and  did  not  speak. 

"He  has  not  come  to  see  you,  Patricia," 
said  Mrs.  Carson,  quietly. 

"  He  does  not  know  that  I  am  here,"  Miss 
Carson  answered ;  "  but  I  'in  sure  if  he  did 
he  would  be  very  glad  to  see  us  again.  And 
if  we  do  see  him  we  can  make  him  promise 
not  to  do  anything  that  might  interfere  with 
our  plans.  Won't  you  let  me  speak  to  him, 
mother  ?  " 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  75 

Mrs.  Carson  turned  uncertainly  to  the 
priest  for  direction  and  his  glance  appar 
ently  reassured  her,  for  she  rose,  though 
still  with  a  troubled  countenance,  and  the 
two  women  left  the  room  together,  the  men 
standing  regarding  each  other  anxiously 
across  the  table.  When  they  had  gone  the 
King  lit  a  cigarette  and  turning  his  back  on 
his  companions  puffed  at  it  nervously  in 
silence.  Kalonay  sat  moodily  studying  the 
pattern  on  the  plate  before  him,  and  the 
others  whispered  together  at  the  farther 
end  of  the  table. 

When  Miss  Carson  and  her  mother  stepped 
out  upon  the  terrace,  the  American  was 
standing  with  his  back  toward  them  and 
was  speaking  to  the  guards  who  sat  cross- 
legged  at  the  top  of  the  steps.  They  showed 
no  sign  of  surprise  at  the  fact  of  his  ad 
dressing  them  in  their  own  tongue  further 
than  that  they  answered  him  with  a  show 
of  respect  which  they  had  not  exhibited 
toward  those  they  protected.  The  American 


76  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

turned  as  he  heard  the  footsteps  behind  him, 
and  after  a  startled  look  of  astonishment, 
hurried  toward  the  two  women,  exclaiming, 
with  every  expression  of  pleasure. 

"  I  had  no  idea  you  were  stopping  here," 
lie  said,  after  the  first  greetings  were  over. 
"  I  thought  you  were  somewhere  on  the 
Continent.  I  am  so  glad  I  caught  you. 
It  seems  centuries  since  I  saw  you  last. 
You  're  looking  very  well,  Mrs.  Carson  — 
and  as  for  Patty  —  I  am  almost  afraid  of 
her  —  I  've  been  hearing  all  sorts  of  things 
about  you  lately,  Patty,"  he  went  on, 
turning  a  smiling  countenance  toward  the 
girl.  "  About  your  engagements  to  princes 
and  dukes  —  all  sorts  of  disturbing  rumors. 
What  a  terrible  swell  you  've  grown  to  be. 
I  hardly  recognize  you  at  all,  Mrs.  Carson. 
It  is  n't  possible  this  is  the  same  young 
girl  I  used  to  take  buggy  riding  on  Sunday 
evenings  ?  " 

"  Indeed,  it  is  not.  I  wish  it  were,"  said 
Mrs.  Carson,  plaintively,  sinking  into  a  chair. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  77 

"  I  'm  glad  to  see  you  're  not  changed, 
Archie,"  she  added,  with  a  sigh. 

"  Why,  he  's  very  much  changed,  mother," 
the  girl  said.  "He  's  taller,  and,  in  compari 
son  with  what  he  was,  he's  almost  wasted 
away,  and  so  sunburned  1  hardly  knew  him. 
Except  round  the  forehead,"  she  added 
mockingly,  "  and  I  suppose  the  sun  could  n't 
burn  there  because  of  the  laurel-wreaths.  I 
hear  they  bring  them  to  you  fresh  every 
morning." 

"  They  're  better  than  coronets,  at  any 
rate,"  Gordon  answered,  with  a  nod. 
"  They  're  not  so  common.  And  if  I  'm 
wasted  away,  can  you  wonder  ?  How  long 
has  it  been  since  I  saw  you,  Patty  ? " 

"  No,  I  'm  wrong,  he  's  not  changed,"  Miss 
Carson  said  drily,  as  she  seated  herself  be 
side  her  mother. 

"  How  do  you  two  come  to  be  stopping 
here  ?  "  the  young  man  asked.  "  I  thought 
this  hotel  had  been  turned  over  to  King 
Louis?" 


78  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"It  has,"  Mrs.  Carson  answered.  "We 
are  staying  at  the  Continental,  on  the  hill 
there.  We  are  only  here  for  breakfast.  He 
asked  us  to  breakfast." 

"  He  ? "  repeated  Gordon,  with  an  incredu 
lous  smile.  "  Who  ?  Not  the  King  —  not 
that  blackguard  ?  " 

Miss  Carson  raised  her  head,  and  stared  at 
him  in  silence,  and  her  mother  gave  a  little 
gasp,  apparently  of  relief  and  satisfaction. 

"  Yes,"  Miss  Carson  answered  at  last, 
coldly.  "  We  are  breakfasting  with  him. 
What  do  you  know  against  him  ? " 

Gordon  stared  at  her  with  such  genuine 
astonishment  that  the  girl  lowered  her  eyes, 
and,  bending  forward  in  her  chair,  twirled 
her  parasol  nervously  between  her  fingers. 

"  What  do  I  know  against  him  ?  Why, 
Patty  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  How  did  you  meet 
him,  in  Heaven's  name  ? "  he  asked  roughly. 
"  Have  you  been  seen  with  him  ?  Have  you 
known  him  long  ?  Who  had  the  impudence 
to  present  him  ? " 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  79 

Mrs.  Carson  looked  up,  now  thoroughly 
alarmed.  Her  lower  lip  was  trembling,  and 
she  twisted  her  gloved  hands  together  in  her 
lap. 

"  What  do  you  know  against  him  ? "  Miss 
Carson  repeated,  meeting  Gordon's  look  with 
one  as  full  of  surprise  as  his  own. 

The  young  man  regarded  her  steadily  for  a 
few  moments,  and  then,  with  a  change  of  man 
ner,  as  though  he  now  saw  the  situation  was 
much  more  serious  than  he  had  at  first  sup 
posed,  drew  up  a  chair  in  front  of  the  two 
women  and  seated  himself  deliberately. 

"  Has  he  borrowed  any  money  from  you 
yet  ?  "  he  asked.  Miss  Carson's  face  flushed 
crimson  and  she  straightened  her  shoulders 
and  turned  her  eyes  away  from  Gordon  with 
every  sign  of  indignation  and  disapproval. 
The  young  man  gave  an  exclamation  of  relief. 

"  No  ?  that 's  good.  You  cannot  have  known 
him  so  very  long.  I  am  greatly  relieved." 

"  Louis  of  Messina,"  he  began  more  gently, 
"is  the  most  unscrupulous  rascal  in  Europe. 


80  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

Since  they  turned  him  out  of  his  kingdom  he 
has  lived  by  selling  his  title  to  men  who  are 
promoting  new  brands  of  champagne  or  float 
ing  queer  mining  shares.  The  greater  part 
of  his  income  is  dependent  on  the  generosity 
of  the  old  nobility  of  Messina,  and  when  they 
don't  pay  him  readily  enough,  he  levies  black 
mail  on  them.  He  owes  money  to  every  tailor 
and  horse-dealer  and  hotel-keeper  in  Europe, 
and  no  one  who  can  tell  one  card  from  another 
will  play  with  him.  That  is  his  reputation. 
And  to  help  him  live  up  to  it  he  has  sur 
rounded  himself  with  a  parcel  of  adventurers 
as  rascally  as  himself :  a  Colonel  Erhaupt  who 
was  dropped  from  a  German  regiment,  and 
who  is  a  Colonel  only  by  the  favor  of  the 
Queen  of  Madagascar ;  a  retired  croupier 
named  Barrat ;  and  a  fallen  angel  called  Kalo- 
nay,  a  fellow  of  the  very  best  blood  in  Europe 
and  with  the  very  worst  morals.  They  call 
him  the  King's  Jackal,  and  he  is  one  of  the 
most  delightful  blackguards  I  ever  met.  So 
is  the  King  for  that  matter,  a  most  entertain- 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  81 

ing  individual  if  you  keep  him  in  his  place, 
but  a  man  no  woman  can  know.  In  fact, 
Mrs.  Carson,"  Gordon  went  on,  addressing 
himself  to  the  mother,  "when  you  have  to 
say  that  a  woman  has  absolutely  no  reputa 
tion  whatever  you  can  best  express  it  by  ex 
plaining  that  she  has  a  title  from  Louis  of 
Messina.  That  is  his  Majesty's  way  of  treat 
ing  his  feminine  friends  when  they  bore  him 
and  he  wants  to  get  rid  of  them.  He  gives 
them  a  title. 

"  The  only  thing  the  man  ever  did  that  was 
to  his  credit  and  that  could  be  discussed  in 
polite  society  is  what  he  is  doing  now  at  this 
place,  at  this  moment.  For  it  seeins,"  Gordon 
whispered,  drawing  his  chair  closer,  "  that  he 
is  about  to  show  himself  something  of  a  man 
after  all,  and  that  he  is  engaged  in  fitting  out 
an  armed  expedition  with  which  he  hopes  to 
recover  his  kingdom.  That 's  what  brought 
me  here,  and  I  must  say  I  rather  admire  him 
for  attempting  such  a  thing.  Of  course,  it 
was  Kalonay  who  put  him  up  to  it ;  he  would 


82  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

never  have  stirred  from  the  boulevards  if  that 
young  man  had  not  made  him.  But  he  is 
here,  nevertheless,  waiting  for  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  sail,  and  he  has  ten  thousand 
rifles  and  three  Maxim  guns  lying  in  his  yacht 
out  there  in  the  harbor.  That 's  how  I  came 
to  learn  about  it.  I  was  getting  an  estimate 
on  an  outfit  I  was  thinking  of  taking  into 
Yucatan  from  my  old  gunsmith  in  the  Rue 
Scribe,  and  he  dropped  a  hint  that  he  had 
shipped  ten  thousand  rifles  to  Tangier,  to 
Colonel  Erhaupt.  I  have  met  Erhaupt  in 
Zanzibar,  and  knew  he  was  the  King's  right- 
hand  man,  so  I  put  two  and  two  together  and 
decided  I  would  follow  them  up,  and  —  " 

"Yes, and  now,"  interrupted  Miss  Carson, 
sharply  — "  and  now  that  you  have  followed 
them  up,  what  do  you  mean  to  do  ? " 

Gordon  looked  his  surprise  at  her  earnest 
ness,  but  answered  that  he  did  not  know  what 
he  would  do  ;  he  thought  he  would  either  ask 
them  to  give  him  a  commission  in  their  expe 
dition,  and  let  him  help  them  fight,  and  write 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  83 

an  account  of  their  adventures  later,  or  he 
would  telegraph  the  story  at  once  to  his  paper. 
It  was  with  him,  he  said,  entirely  a  question 
as  to  which  course  would  be  of  the  greater 
news  value.  If  he  told  what  he  now  knew,  his 
paper  would  be  the  first  of  all  others  to  inform 
the  world  of  the  expedition  and  the  proposed 
revolution ;  while  if  he  volunteered  for  the 
expedition  and  waited  until  it  had  failed  or 
succeeded,  he  would  be  able  to  tell  more 
eventually,  but  would  have  to  share  it  with 
other  correspondents. 

Miss  Carson  regarded  him  with  an  expres 
sion  in  which  indignation  and  entreaty  were 
curiously  blended. 

"  Archie,"  she  said,  in  a  low  voice,  "  you  do 
not  know  what  you  are  doing  or  saying.  You 
are  threatening  to  spoil  the  one  thing  in  my 
life  on  which  I  have  set  my  heart.  The  return 
of  this  man  to  his  throne,  whether  he  is  worthy 
or  not,  means  the  restoration  of  the  Catholic 
Church  on  that  island  ;  it  means  the  return  of 
the  monks  and  the  rebuilding  of  the  inonas- 


84  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

teries,  and  the  salvation  of  sixty  thousand 
souls.  I  know  all  that  they  mean  to  do.  I 
am  the  one  who  paid  for  those  rifles  that 
brought  you  here  ;  you  have  told  me  only 
what  I  have  known  for  months,  and  for  which 
I  have  been  earnestly  working  and  praying. 
I  am  not  blinded  by  these  men.  They  are  not 
the  creatures  you  describe  ;  but  no  matter 
what  they  may  be,  it  is  only  through  them, 
and  through  them  alone,  that  I  can  do  what  I 
have  set  out  to  do." 

Gordon  silenced  her  with  a  sweep  of  his 
hand. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  he  demanded, 
"  that  you  are  mixed  up  in  this  —  with  these 
-that  they  have  taken  money  from  you,  and 
told  you  they  meant  to  use  it  to  re-establish 
the  Church?  Mrs.  Carson,"  he  exclaimed 
bitterly,  turning  upon  her,  "  why  have  you 
allowed  this  —  what  have  you  been  doing 
while  this  was  going  on  ?  Do  you  suppose 
those  scoundrels  care  for  the  Church  —  the 
Church,  indeed  !  Wait  until  I  see  them  — 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  85 

any  of  them  —  Erhaupt  by  choice,  and  I  '11 
make  them  give  up  every  franc  you  've  lent 
them,  or  I  '11  horsewhip  and  expose  them  for 
the  gang  of  welshers  and  thimble-riggers  they 
are ;  or  if  they  prefer  their  own  methods,  I  '11 
call  them  out  in  rotation  and  shoot  their  arms 
and  legs  off."  He  stopped  and  drew  a  long 
breath,  either  of  content  that  he  had  discovered 
the  situation  in  time  to  take  some  part  in  it, 
or  at  the  prospect  of  a  fight. 

"  The  idea  of  you  two  helpless  females  wan 
dering  into  this  den  of  wolves,"  he  exclaimed 
indignantly.  "  It 's  about  time  you  had  a 
man  to  look  after  you !  You  go  back  to  your 
hotel  now,  and  let  me  have  a  chat  with  Louis 
of  Messina.  He 's  kept  me  waiting  some  twenty 
minutes  as  it  is,  and  that's  a  little  longer 
than  I  can  give  him.  I'm  not  a  creditor." 
He  rose  from  his  chair ;  but  Miss  Carson  put 
out  her  hand  and  motioned  him  to  be  seated. 

"  Archie,"  she  said,  "  I  like  the  way  you 
take  this,  even  though  you  are  all  wrong  about 
it,  because  it 's  just  like  you  to  fly  into  a  pas- 


88  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

you  find  me  in  Tangier.  And  now  that  you 
understand  how  much  this  means  to  me,  I 
know  you  will  not  do  anything  to  stand  in  our 
way.  Those  men  inside  are  afraid  that  you 
came  here  for  just  the  reason  that  apparently 
has  brought  you,  and  when  they  saw  you  a 
little  while  ago  through  the  windows  they 
were  greatly  disturbed.  Let  me  tell  them 
that  you  mean  to  volunteer  for  the  campaign. 
The  King  cannot  refuse  the  services  of  a  man 
who  has  done  the  things  you  are  always 
doing.  And  I  promise  you  that  for  a  reward 
you  shall  be  the  only  one  to  tell  the  story  of 
our  attempt.  I  promise  you,"  she  repeated 
earnestly,  "  that  the  day  we  enter  the  capital, 
you  can  cable  whatever  you  please  and  tell 
our  story  to  the  whole  of  Europe." 

"  The  story  be  hanged,"  replied  Gordon. 
"  You  have  made  this  a  much  more  serious 
business  than  a  newspaper  story.  You  mis 
understand  me  utterly,  Patty.  I  am  here 
now  because  I  am  not  going  to  have  you  com 
promised  and  robbed." 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  89 

The  girl  stood  up,  and  looked  down  at  the 
young  man  indignantly. 

"  You  have  no  right  whatever  to  use  that 
tone  to  me,"  she  said.  "  I  am  of  age  and  my 
own  adviser.  I  am  acting  for  the  good  of  a 
great  number  of  people,  and  according  to  what 
my  conscience  and  common-sense  tell  me  is 
right.  I  shall  hate  you  if  you  attempt  to 
interfere.  You  can  do  one  of  two  things, 
Archie.  I  give  you  your  choice :  you  can 
either  go  with  them  as  a  volunteer,  and  prom 
ise  to  keep  our  secret ;  or  you  can  cable  what 
you  know  now,  what  you  know  only  by  acci 
dent,  but  if  you  do,  you  will  lose  your  best 
friend,  and  you  will  defeat  a  good  and  a  noble 
effort." 

Gordon  leaned  back  in  his  chair,  and  looked 
up  at  her  steadily  for  a  brief  moment,  and 
then  rose  with  a  smile,  and  bowed  to  the  two 
women  in  silence.  He  crossed  the  terrace 
quickly  with  an  amused  and  puzzled  counte 
nance,  and  walked  into  the  breakfast-room, 
from  the  windows  of  which,  as  he  rightly 


90  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

guessed,  the  five  conspirators  had  for  some 
time  observed  him.  He  looked  from  one  to 
the  other  of  the  men  about  the  table,  until  his 
eyes  finally  met  those  of  the  King. 

"  I  believe,  sir,  you  are  leading  an  expedi 
tion  against  the  Republic  of  Messina  ?"  Gordon 
said.  "  1  am  afraid  it  can't  start  unless  you 
take  me  with  vou." 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  91 


III 


r  I  ^HE  presence  in  Tangier  of  the  King  of 
-*-  Messina  and  his  suite,  and  the  arrival 
there  of  the  French  noblemen  who  had  volun 
teered  for  the  expedition,  could  not  escape  the 
observation  of  the  resident  Consuls-General 
and  of  the  foreign  colony,  and  dinners,  riding 
and  hunting  parties,  pig-sticking,  and  excur 
sions  on  horseback  into  the  outlying  country 
were  planned  for  their  honor  and  daily  enter 
tainment.  Had  the  conspirators  held  aloof 
from  these,  the  residents  might  have  asked, 
since  it  was  not  to  enjoy  themselves,  what 
was  the  purpose  of  their  stay  in  Tangier ;  and 
so,  to  allay  suspicion  as  to  their  real  object, 
different  members  of  the  expedition  had  been 
assigned  from  time  to  time  to  represent  the 
visitors  at  these  festivities.  On  the  morning 
following  the  return  of  the  yacht  from  Mes- 


92  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

sina,  an  invitation  to  ride  to  a  farm-house 
some  miles  out  of  Tangier  and  to  breakfast 
there  had  been  sent  to  the  visitors,  and  the 
King  had  directed  the  Prince  Kalonay,  and 
half  of  the  delegation  from  Paris,  to  accept  it 
in  his  name. 

They  were  well  content  to  go,  and  rode 
forth  gayly  and  in  high  spirits,  for  the  word 
had  been  brought  them  early  in  the  morning 
that  the  expedition  was  already  prepared  to 
move,  and  that  same  evening  at  midnight  the 
yacht  would  set  sail  for  Messina.  They  were 
careless  as  to  what  fortune  waited  for  them 
there.  The  promise  of  much  excitement,  of 
fighting  and  of  danger,  of  possible  honor  and 
success,  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  young  men 
gloriously,  and  as  they  galloped  across  the 
plains,  or  raced  each  other  from  point  to 
point,  or  halted  to  jump  their  ponies  across 
the  many  gaping  crevices  which  the  sun  had 
split  in  the  surface  of  the  plain,  they  filled 
the  still,  warm  air  with  their  shouts  and 
laughter.  In  the  party  there  were  many 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  93 

ladies,  and  the  groups  changed  and  formed 
again  as  they  rode  forward,  spread  out  on 
either  side  of  the  caravan-trail  and  covering 
the  plain  like  a  skirmish  line  of  cavalry.  But 
Kalonay  kept  close  at  Miss  Carson's  stirrup, 
whether  she  walked  her  pony  or  sent  him 
flying  across  the  hard,  sun-baked  soil. 

"  I  hope  you  won't  do  that  again,"  he  said 
earnestly,  as  she  drew  up  panting,  with  her 
sailor  hat  and  hair  falling  to  her  shoulders. 
They  had  been  galloping  recklessly  over  the 
open  crevices  in  the  soil. 

"  It 's  quite  the  nastiest  country  I  ever 
saw,"  he  said.  "  It  looks  as  though  an  earth 
quake  had  shaken  it  open  and  had  forgotten 
to  close  it  again.  Believe  me,  it  is  most 
unsafe  and  dangerous.  Your  pony  might 
stumble  — "  He  stopped,  as  though  the  pos 
sibilities  were  too  serious  for  words,  but  the 
girl  laughed. 

"  It 's  no  more  dangerous  than  riding  across 
our  prairie  at  dusk  when  you  can't  see  the 
barbed  wire.  You  are  the  last  person  in  the 


94  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

world  to  find  fault  because  a  thing  is  danger 
ous,"  she  added. 

They  had  reached  the  farm,  where  they 
were  to  breakfast,  and  the  young  Englishman, 
who  was  their  host,  was  receiving  his  guests 
in  his  garden,  and  the  servants  were  passing 
among  them,  carrying  cool  drinks  and  pow 
dered  sweets  and  Turkish  coffee.  Kalonay 
gave  their  ponies  to  a  servant  and  pointed 
with  his  whip  to  an  arbor  that  stood  at  one 
end  of  the  garden. 

"  May  we  sit  down  there  a  moment  until 
they  call  us  ? "  he  said.  "  I  have  news  of 
much  importance  —  and  I  may  not  have  an 
other  chance,"  he  begged,  looking  at  her  wist 
fully.  The  girl  stood  motionless ;  her  eyes 
were  serious,  and  she  measured  the  distance 
down  the  walk  to  the  arbor  as  though  she  saw 
it  beset  with  dangers  more  actual  than  preci 
pices  and  twisted  wire.  The  Prince  watched 
her  as  though  his  fate  was  being  weighed  in 
his  presence. 

"  Very  well,"  she  said  at  last,  and  moved 
on  before  him  down  the  garden- path. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  95 

The  arbor  was  open  to  the  air  with  a  low, 
broad  roof  of  palm-leaves  that  overhung  it  on 
all  sides  and  left  it  in  deep  shadow.  Around 
it  were  many  strange  plants  and  flowers,  some 
native  to  Morocco  and  some  transplanted  from 
their  English  home.  From  where  they  sat 
they  could  see  the  other  guests  moving  in  and 
out  among  the  groves  of  orange  and  olive 
trees  and  swaying  palms,  and  standing,  out 
lined  against  the  blue  sky,  upon  the  low,  flat 
roof  of  the  farm-house. 

"  I  have  dared  to  ask  you  to  be  so  good  as 
to  give  me  this  moment,"  the  Prince  said 
humbly,  "  only  because  I  am  going  away,  and 
it  may  be  my  last  chance  to  speak  with  you. 
You  do  not  mind  ?  You  do  not  think  I 
presume  ?  " 

"  No,  I  do  not  mind,"  said  the  girl,  smiling. 
"  In  my  country  we  do  not  think  it  a  terrible 
offence  to  talk  to  a  girl  at  a  garden-party. 
But  you  said  there  was  something  of  impor 
tance  you  wanted  to  say  to  me.  You  mean 
the  expedition  ?  " 


94  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

world  to  find  fault  because  a  thing  is  danger 
ous,"  she  added. 

They  had  reached  the  farm,  where  they 
were  to  breakfast,  and  the  young  Englishman, 
who  was  their  host,  was  receiving  his  guests 
in  his  garden,  and  the  servants  were  passing 
among  them,  carrying  cool  drinks  and  pow 
dered  sweets  and  Turkish  coffee.  Kalonay 
gave  their  ponies  to  a  servant  and  pointed 
with  his  whip  to  an  arbor  that  stood  at  one 
end  of  the  garden. 

"  May  we  sit  down  there  a  moment  until 
they  call  us  ? "  he  said.  "  I  have  news  of 
much  importance  —  and  I  may  not  have  an 
other  chance,"  he  begged,  looking  at  her  wist 
fully.  The  girl  stood  motionless ;  her  eyes 
were  serious,  and  she  measured  the  distance 
down  the  walk  to  the  arbor  as  though  she  saw 
it  beset  with  dangers  more  actual  than  preci 
pices  and  twisted  wire.  The  Prince  watched 
her  as  though  his  fate  was  being  weighed  in 
his  presence. 

"  Very  well,"  she  said  at  last,  and  moved 
on  before  him  down  the  garden-path. 


THE  KINO'S  JACKAL  95 

The  arbor  was  open  to  the  air  with  a  low, 
broad  roof  of  palm-leaves  that  overhung  it  on 
all  sides  and  left  it  in  deep  shadow.  Around 
it  were  many  strange  plants  and  flowers,  some 
native  to  Morocco  and  some  transplanted  from 
their  English  home.  From  where  they  sat 
they  could  see  the  other  guests  moving  in  and 
out  among  the  groves  of  orange  and  olive 
trees  and  swaying  palms,  and  standing,  out 
lined  against  the  blue  sky,  upon  the  low,  flat 
roof  of  the  farm-house. 

"  I  have  dared  to  ask  you  to  be  so  good  as 
to  give  me  this  moment,"  the  Prince  said 
humbly,  "  only  because  I  am  going  away,  and 
it  may  be  my  last  chance  to  speak  with  you. 
You  do  not  mind  ?  You  do  not  think  I 
presume  ?  " 

"  No,  I  do  not  mind,"  said  the  girl,  smiling. 
"  In  my  country  we  do  not  think  it  a  terrible 
offence  to  talk  to  a  girl  at  a  garden-party. 
But  you  said  there  was  something  of  impor 
tance  you  wanted  to  say  to  me.  You  mean 
the  expedition  ?  " 


96  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  Yes,"  said  Kalonay.  "  We  start  this 
evening." 

The  girl  raised  her  head  slightly  and  stared 
past  him  at  the  burning  white  walls  and  the 
burning  blue  sky  that  lay  outside  the  circle 
of  shadow  in  which  they  sat. 

"  This  evening  —  "  she  repeated  to  herself. 

"  We  reach  there  in  two  days,"  Kalonay 
continued  ;  "  and  then  we  —  then  we  go  on 
—  until  we  enter  the  capital." 

The  girl's  head  was  bent,  and  she  looked  at 
her  hands  as  they  lay  in  her  lap  and  frowned 
at  them,  they  seemed  so  white  and  pretty 
and  useless. 

"  Yes,  you  go  on,"  she  repeated,  "  and  we 
stay  here.  You  are  a  man  and  able  to  go  on. 
I  know  what  that  means.  And  you  like  it," 
she  added,  with  a  glance  of  mingled  admira 
tion  and  fear.  "  You  are  glad  to  fight  and  to 
risk  death  and  to  lead  men  on  to  kill  other 
men." 

Kalonay  drew  lines  in  the  sand  with  his 
riding-whip,  and  did  not  raise  his  head. 


"I   SUPPOSE   IT   IS   BECAUSE   YOU   ARE   FIGHTING   FOR    YOUR   HOME." 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  97 

"  I  suppose  it  is  because  you  are  fighting 
for  your  home,"  the  girl  continued,  "  and  to 
set  your  country  free,  and  that  you  can  live 
with  your  own  people  again,  and  because  it  is 
a  holy  war.  That  must  be  it.  Now  that  it 
is  really  conie,  I  see  it  all  differently.  I  see 
things  I  had  not  thought  about  before.  They 
frighten  me,"  she  said. 

The  Prince  raised  his  head  and  faced  the 
girl,  clasping  the  end  of  his  whip  nervously 
in  his  hand. 

"  If  we  should  win  the  island  for  the  King," 
he  said,  "  I  believe  it  will  make  a  great  change 
in  me.  I  shall  be  able  to  go  freely  then  to 
my  home,  as  you  say,  to  live  there  always,  to 
give  up  the  life  I  have  led  on  the  continent. 
It  has  been  a  foolish  life  —  a  dog's  life  —  and 
I  have  no  one  to  blame  for  it  but  myself.  I 
made  it  worse  than  it  need  to  have  been. 
But  if  we  win,  I  have  promised  myself  that  I 
will  not  return  to  it ;  and  if  we  fail  I  shall  not 
return  to  it,  for  the  reason  that  I  shall  have 
been  killed.  I  shall  have  much  power  if  we 
7 


98  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

win.  When  1  say  much  power,  I  mean  much 
power  in  Messina,  in  that  little  corner  of 
the  world,  and  I  wish  to  use  it  worthily  and 
well.  I  am  afraid  I  should  not  have  thought 
of  it,"  he  went  en,  naively,  as  though  he  were 
trying  to  be  quite  fair,  "  had  not  Father  Paul 
pointed  out  to  me  what  I  should  do,  how  I 
could  raise  the  people  and  stop  the  abuses 
which  made  them  drive  us  from  the  island. 
The  people  must  be  taxed  less  heavily,  and 
the  money  must  be  spent  for  them  and  not 
for  us,  on  roads  and  harbors  and  schools,  not 
at  the  Palace  on  banquets  and  fetes.  These 
are  Father  Paul's  ideas,  not  mine,  —  but  now 
I  make  them  mine."  He  rose  and  paced  the 
length  of  the  little  arbor,  his  hands  clasped 
behind  him  and  his  eyes  bent  on  the  ground. 
"  Yes,  that  is  what  I  mean  to  do,"  he  said. 
"  That  is  the  way  I  mean  to  live.  And  if  we 
fail,  I  mean  to  be  among  those  who  are  to 
die  on  the  fortifications  of  the  capital,  so  that 
with  me  the  Kalonay  family  will  end,  and 
end  fighting  for  the  King  as  many  of  my 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  99 

people  have  done  before  me.  There  is  no 
other  way.  For  me  there  shall  be  no  more 
idleness  nor  exile.  I  must  either  live  on  to 
help  my  people,  or  I  must  die  with  them." 
He  stopped  in  his  walk  and  regarded  the  girl 
closely.  "  You  may  be  thinking,  it  is  easy 
for  him  to  promise  this,  it  is  easy  to  speak  of 
what  one  will  do.  I  know  that.  I  know  that 
I  can  point  back  at  nothing  I  have  done  that 
gives  me  any  right  to  ask  you  to  believe  me 
now.  But  I  do  ask  it,  for  if  you  believe  me 
—  believe  what  I  say  —  it  makes  it  easier  for 
me  to  tell  you  why  after  this  I  must  live 
worthily.  But  you  know  why  ?  You  must 
know;  it  is  not  possible  that  you  do  not 
know." 

He  sat  down  beside  her  on  the  bench,  lean 
ing  forward  and  crushing  his  hands  together 
on  his  knee.  "It  is  because  I  love  you. 
Because  I  love  you  so  that  everything  which 
is  not  worthy  is  hateful  to  me,  myself  most  of 
all.  It  is  the  only  thing  that  counts.  I  used 
to  think  I  knew  what  love  meant ;  I  used  to 


100 


THE   KING'S  JACKAL 


think  Wve.  was  a  selfish  thing  that  needed 
love  in  Wiim,  that  it  must  be  fed  on  love  to 
live,  that  ^t/jiceded  vows  and  tender  speeches 
and  caress\Sy  or  It  would  die.  I  know  now 
that  when  erne  truly  cares,  he  does  not  ask 
whether  the  \^her  cares  or  not.  It  is  what 
one  gives  thafj  counts,  not  what  one  receives. 
You  have  givervjne  nothing  —  nothing  —  not 
a  JwtiTd  nor  a  It^ok  ;  yet  since  I  have  known 
have  been  (more  madly  happy  in  just 


never  to 
\    haps  more 
\  when  I  am 
\I  may  ha\ 
so.  or  I 
me  £p  not 


than  I 
in  all  t 


and  saifl 


knowing  thaKvou  1 
had  any  other 
herself  iri 

above  all  tfther  rnen\    1  am 
this.     BuTTbo-nieht  iVo Uo/t 
aim  or  to 


ould  have  been 
world  thrown 
she  loved  me 


tell  you 
myself,  either 
QC  back  per- 


lore  youjf  Think  of  this 


ade 


just 


ot  sp 
hate  me 
you  pit 
loving  y 


to  me  now. 

r  speaking 
e  ;  so  let 
worship- 


ping  you,  and  holding  you  apart  ancr  above  all 
other  people.     I  go  to  fight  for  you,  do  you 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  101 

understand?  Not  for  our  Church,  not  for 
my  people,  but  for  you,  to  live  or  die  for  you. 
And  I  ask  nothing  from  you  but  that  you  will 
let  me  love  you  always." 

The  Prince  bent,  and  catching  up  Miss 
Carson's  riding-gloves  that  lay  beside  her  on 
the  bench,  kissed  them  again  and  again,  and 
then,  rising  quickly,  walked  out  of  the  arbor 
into  the  white  sunshine,  and,  without  turning, 
mounted  his  pony  and  galloped  across  the 
burning  desert  in  the  direction  of  Tangier. 

Archie  Gordon  had  not  been  invited  to  join 
the  excursion  into  the  country,  nor  would  he 
have  accepted  it,  for  he  wished  to  be  by  him 
self  that  he  might  review  the  situation  and 
consider  what  lay  before  him.  He  sat  with 
his  long  legs  dangling  over  the  broad  ram 
part  which  overlooks  the  harbor  of  Tangier. 
Pie  was  whistling  meditatively  to  himself 
and  beating  an  accompaniment  to  the  tune 
with  his  heels.  At  intervals  he  ceased 
whistling  while  he  placed  a  cigar  between  his 


102  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

teeth  and  pulled  upon  it  thoughtfully,  resum 
ing  his  tune  again  at  the  point  where  it 
had  been  interrupted.  Below  him  the  waves 
ran  up  lazily  on  the  level  beach  and  sank 
again,  dragging  the  long  seaweed  with  them, 
as  they  swept  against  the  sharp  rocks,  and 
exposed  them  for  an  instant,  naked  and  glis 
tening  in  the  sun.  On  either  side  of  him  the 
town  stretched  to  meet  the  low,  white  sand 
hills  in  a  crescent  of  low,  white  houses  pierced 
by  green  minarets  and  royal  palms.  A  warm 
sun  had  sent  the  world  to  sleep  at  mid-day, 
and  an  enforced  peace  hung  over  the  glaring 
white  town  and  the  sparkling  blue  sea.  Gor 
don  blinked  at  the  glare,  but  his  eyes  showed 
no  signs  of  drowsiness.  They  were,  on  the 
contrary,  awake  to  all  that  passed  on  the  high 
road  behind  him,  and  on  the  sandy  beach  at 
his  feet,  while  at  the  same  time  his  mind  was 
busily  occupied  in  reviewing  what  had  occurred 
the  day  before,  and  in  adjusting  new  condi 
tions.  At  the  hotel  he  had  found  that  the 
situation  was  becoming  too  complicated,  and 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  103 

that  it  was  impossible  to  feel  sure  of  the  truth 
of  anything,  or  of  the  sincerity  of  any  one. 
Since  the  luncheon  hour  the  day  before  he 
had  become  a  fellow-conspirator  with  men 
who  were  as  objectionable  to  him  in  every 
way  as  he  knew  he  was  obnoxious  to  them. 
But  they  had  been  forced  to  accept  him  be 
cause,  so  they  supposed,  he  had  them  at  the 
mercy  of  his  own  pleasure.  He  knew  their 
secret,  and  in  the  legitimate  pursuit  of  his 
profession  he  could,  if  he  chose,  inform  the 
island  of  Messina,  with  the  rest  of  the  world, 
of  their  intention  toward  it,  and  bring  their 
expedition  to  an  end,  though  he  had  chosen, 
as  a  reward  for  his  silence,  to  become  one  of 
themselves.  Only  the  Countess  Zara  had 
guessed  the  truth,  that  it  was  Gordon  himself 
who  was  at  their  mercy,  and  that  so  long  as 
the  American  girl  persisted  in  casting  her 
fortunes  with  them  her  old  young  friend  was 
only  too  eager  to  make  any  arrangement  with 
them  that  would  keep  him  at  her  side. 

It  was  a  perplexing  position,  and  Gordon 


104  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

turned  it  over  and  over  in  his  mind.  Had  it 
not  been  that  Miss  Carson  had  a  part  in  it  he 
would  have  enjoyed  the  adventure,  as  an 
adventure,  keenly.  He  had  no  objections  to 
fighting  on  the  side  of  rascals,  or  against 
rascals.  He  objected  to  them  only  in  the 
calmer  moments  of  private  life ;  and  as  he 
was  of  course  ignorant  that  the  expedition 
was  only  a  make-believe,  he  felt  a  certain  re 
spect  for  his  fellow-conspirators  as  men  who 
were  willing  to  stake  their  lives  for  a  chance 
of  better  fortune.  But  that  their  bravery  was 
of  the  kind  which  would  make  them  hesitate 
to  rob  and  deceive  a  helpless  girl  he  very 
much  doubted  ;  for  he  knew  that  even  the 
bravest  of  warriors  on  their  way  to  battle 
will  requisition  a  herd  of  cattle  or  stop  to 
loot  a  temple.  The  day  before,  Gordon  had 
witnessed  the  brief  ceremony  which  attended 
the  presentation  of  the  young  noblemen  from 
Paris  who  had  volunteered  for  the  expedition 
in  all  good  faith,  and  he  reviewed  it  and  ana 
lyzed  it  as  he  sat  smoking  on  the  ramparts. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  105 

It  had  been  an  impressive  ceremony,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  so  few  had  taken  part 
in  it,  but  the  earnestness  of  the  visitors 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  Kalonay  and  the 
priest  had  made  up  for  the  lack  of  numbers. 
The  scene  had  appealed  to  him  as  one  of 
the  most  dramatic  he  had  witnessed  in  the 
pursuit  of  a  calling  in  which  looking  on  at 
real  dramas  was  the  most  frequent  duty,  and 
he  had  enjoyed  the  strange  mixture  of  an 
cient  terms  of  address  and  titles  with  the 
modern  manners  of  the  men  themselves.  It 
had  interested  him  to  watch  Baron  Barrat 
bring  out  the  ancient  crown  and  jewelled 
sceptre  which  had  been  the  regalia  of  all 
the  Kings  of  Messina  since  the  Crusades 
and  spread  them  out  upon  a  wicker  tea- 
table,  from  which  Niccolas  had  just  removed 
some  empty  coffee-cups,  half  filled  with  the 
ends  of  cigarettes,  some  yellow-backed  novels, 
and  a  copy  of  the  Paris  "  Figaro."  It  was 
also  interesting  to  him  to  note  how  the 
sight  of  the  little  heir  apparent  affected  both 


106  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

the  peasants  from  the  mountains  and  the 
young  nobles  from  the  Club  Royal.  The 
former  fell  upon  their  knees  with  the  tears 
rolling  down  the  furrows  in  their  tanned 
cheeks,  while  the  little  wise-eyed  boy  stood 
clinging  to  his  nurse's  skirts  with  one  hand 
and  to  his  father's  finger  with  the  other, 
and  nodded  his  head  at  them  gravely  like  a 
toy  Mandarin. 

Then  the  King  had  addressed  them  in  a 
dignified,  earnest,  and  almost  eloquent  speech, 
and  had  promised  much  and  prophesied  the 
best  of  fortunes,  and  then,  at  the  last,  had 
turned  suddenly  toward  Miss  Carson,  where 
she  stood  in  the  background  between  her 
mother  and  Father  Paul. 

"  Every  cause  has  its  Joan  of  Arc,  or  its 
Maria  Theresa,"  he  cried,  looking  steadfastly 
at  Miss  Carson.  "  No  cause  has  succeeded 
without  some  good  woman  to  aid  it.  To 
help  us,  my  friends,  we  have  a  daughter  of 
the  people,  as  was  Joan  of  Arc,  and  a  queen, 
as  was  Maria  Theresa,  for  she  comes  from 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  107 

that  country  where  every  woman  is  a  queen 
in  her  own  right,  and  where  the  love  of  lib 
erty  is  inherent."  The  King  took  a  quick 
step  backward,  and  taking  Miss  Carson's 
hand  drew  her  forward  beside  him  and 
placed  her  facing  his  audience,  while  the 
girl  made  vain  efforts  to  withdraw  her  hand. 
"This  is  she,"  he  said  earnestly,  "  the  true 
daughter  of  the  Church  who  has  made  it 
possible  for  us  to  return  to  our  own  again. 
It  is  due  to  her  that  the  King  of  Messina 
shall  sifc  once  more  on  his  throne  ;  it  is  through 
her  generosity  alone  that  the  churches  will 
rise  from  their  ruins  and  that  you  will  once 
again  hear  the  Angelus  ring  across  the  fields 
at  sunset.  Remember  her,  my  friends  and 
cousins,  pray  for  her  as  a  saint  upon  earth, 
and  fight  gloriously  to  help  her  to  success  ! " 

Gordon  had  restrained  himself  with  diffi 
culty  while  this  scene  was  being  enacted; 
he  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  the  King 
touching  the  girl's  hand.  He  struggled  to 
prevent  himself  from  crying  out  at  the  false 


108  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

position  into  which  he  had  dragged  her ;  and 
yet  there  was  something  so  admirably  sin 
cere  in  the  King's  words,  something  so 
courteous  and  manly,  that  it  robbed  his 
words  of  all  the  theatrical  effect  they  held, 
and  his  tribute  to  the  girl  filled  even  Gordon 
with  an  emotion  which  on  the  part  of  the 
young  nobles  found  expression  in  cheer  upon 
cheer. 

Gordon  recalled  these  cheers  and  the  looks 
of  wondering  admiration  which  had  been 
turned  upon  Miss  Carson,  and  he  grew  so 
hot  at  the  recollection  that  he  struck  the 
wall  beside  him  savagely  with  his  clenched 
fist,  and  damned  the  obstinacy  of  his  young 
and  beautiful  friend  with  a  sincerity  and 
vigor  that  was  the  highest  expression  of  his 
interest  in  her  behalf. 

He  threw  his  cigar  into  the  rampart  at  his 
feet  and  dropped  back  into  the  high  road. 
It  was  deserted  at  the  time,  except  for  the 
presence  of  a  tall,  slightly  built  stranger, 
who  advanced  toward  him  from  the  city 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  109 

gates.  The  man  was  dressed  in  garments 
of  European  fashion  and  carried  himself 
like  a  soldier,  and  Gordon  put  him  down 
at  a  glance  as  one  of  the  volunteers  from 
Paris.  The  stranger  was  walking  leisurely, 
stopping  to  gaze  at  the  feluccas  in  the  bay, 
and  then  turning  to  look  up  at  the  fortress 
on  the  hill.  He  seemed  to  have  no  purpose 
in  his  walk  except  the  interest  of  a  tour 
ist,  and  as  he  drew  up  even  with  Gordon 
he  raised  his  helmet  politely  and  greeting 
him  in  English,  asked  if  he  were  on  the 
right  road  to  the  Bashaw's  Palace.  Gor 
don  pointed  to  where  the  white  walls  of  the 
palace  rose  above  the  other  white  walls 
about  it. 

"  That  is  it,"  he  said.  "  All  the  roads  lead 
to  it.  You  keep  going  up  hill." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  the  stranger.  "  I  see  I 
have  taken  a  long  way."  He  put  his  white 
umbrella  in  the  sand,  and,  removing  his  hel 
met,  mopped  his  forehead  with  his  handker 
chief.  "  It  is  a  curious  old  town,  Tangier," 


110  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

he  said  affably,  "  but  too  many  hills,  is  it  not 
so  ?  Algiers  I  like  better.  There  is  more 
life." 

"  Yes,  Algiers  is  almost  as  good  as  the 
boulevards,"  Gordon  assented,  "  if  you  like 
the  boulevards.  I  prefer  this  place  because 
it  is  unspoiled.  But,  as  you  say,  there  is  not 
much  to  do  here." 

The  stranger's  eyes  fell  upon  the  Hotel 
Grande  Bretagne,  which  stood  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away  from  them  on  the  beach. 

"  That  is  the  Hotel  Bretagne,  is  it  not  ? " 
he  asked.  Gordon  answered  him  with  a  nod. 

"  The  King  Louis  of  Messina,  so  the  chas 
seur  at  the  hotel  tells  me,  is  stopping  there 
en  suite  ?  "  the  stranger  added,  with  an  inter 
rogative  air  of  one  who  volunteers  an  interest 
ing  fact,  and  who  asks  if  it  is  true  at  the  same 
moment. 

"  I  can't  say,  I  'm  sure,"  Gordon  replied. 
"  I  only  arrived  here  yesterday." 

The  stranger  bowed  his  head  in  recognition 
of  this  piece  of  personal  information,  and, 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  111 

putting  on  his  helmet,  picked  up  his  umbrella 
as  though  to  continue  his  stroll.  As  he  did 
so  his  eyes  wandered  over  the  harbor  and 
were  arrested  with  apparent  interest  by  the 
yacht,  which  lay  a  conspicuous  object  on  the 
blue  water.  He  pointed  at  it  with  his  um 
brella. 

"  One  of  your  English  men-of-war  is  in  the 
harbor,  I  see.  She  is  very  pretty,  but  not 
large;  not  so  large  as  many,"  he  said. 

Gordon  turned  his  head  obligingly  and 
gazed  at  the  yacht  with  polite  interest.  "  Is 
that  a  man-of-war  ?  I  thought  it  was  a  yacht," 
he  said.  "  I  'm  not  familiar  with  the  English 
war-vessels.  I  am  an  American." 

"  Ah,  indeed ! "  commented  the  affable 
stranger.  "  I  am  French  myself,  but  I  think 
she  is  a  man-of-war.  I  saw  her  guns  when  I 
passed  on  the  steamer  from  Gibraltar." 

Gordon  knew  that  the  steamer  did  not  pass 
within  half  a  mile  of  where  the  yacht  lay  at 
anchor,  but  he  considered  it  might  be  possible 
to  see  her  decks  with  the  aid  of  a  glass. 


112  THE  KIN&S  JACKAL 

"  You  may  be  right,"  he  answered  indiffer 
ently.  As  he  turned  his  eyes  from  the  boat 
he  saw  a  woman,  dressed  in  white,  and  carry 
ing  a  parasol,  leave  the  gardens  of  the  Hotel 
Bretagne,  and  come  toward  them  along  the 
beach.  The  Frenchman,  following  the  direc 
tion  of  his  eyes,  saw  her  also,  and  regarded 
her  instantly  with  such  evident  concern  that 
Gordon,  who  had  recognized  her  even  at  that 
distance  as  the  Countess  Zara,  felt  assured 
that  his  inquisitor  held,  as  he  had  already 
suspected,  more  than  a  tourist's  interest  in 
Tangier. 

"  Well,  I  will  wish  you  a  good-morning," 
said  the  Frenchman,  hurriedly. 

"  Good-morning,"  Gordon  replied,  and  tak 
ing  a  cigar  from  his  case,  he  seated  himself 
again  upon  the  rampart.  As  he  walked  away 
the  stranger  glanced  back  over  his  shoulder, 
but  Gordon  was  apparently  absorbed  in  watch 
ing  the  waves  below  him,  and  had  lost  all  in 
terest  in  his  chance  acquaintance.  But  he 
watched  both  the  woman  and  the  Frenchman 


THE   KING'S  JACKAL  113 

as  they  advanced  slowly  from  opposite  direc 
tions  and  drew  nearer  together,  and  he  was 
not  altogether  surprised,  when  the  man  was 
within  twenty  feet  of  her,  to  see  her  start  and 
stand  still,  and  then,  with  the  indecision  of  a 
hunted  animal,  move  uncertainly,  and  then 
turn  and  run  in  the  direction  of  the  hotel. 
Something  the  man  apparently  called  after 
her  caused  her  to  stop,  and  Gordon  observed 
them  now  with  undisguised  interest  as  they 
stood  conversing  together,  oblivious  of  the 
conspicuous  mark  they  made  on  the  broad 
white  beach  under  the  brilliant  sun. 

"  I  wonder  what  he  's  up  to  now  ? "  Gor 
don  mused.  "  He  was  trying  to  pump  me, 
that's  evident,  and  he  certainly  recognized 
the  lady,  and  she  apparently  did  not  want 
to  recognize  him.  1  wonder  if  he  is  a 
rejected  lover,  or  another  conspirator.  This 
is  a  most  amusing  place,  nothing  but  plots 
and  counterplots  and  —  Hello  !  "  he  ex 
claimed  aloud.  The  man  had  moved  quickly 
past  Madame  Zara,  and  had  started  toward 


114  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

the  hotel,  and  Zara  had  held  out  her  hand 
to  him,  as  though  to  entreat  him  to  remain. 
But  he  did  not  stop,  and  she  had  taken  a 
few  uncertain  steps  after  him,  and  had  then, 
much  to  the  American's  dismay,  fallen 
limply  on  her  back  on  the  soft  sand.  She 
was  not  a  hundred  yards  distant  from  where 
he  sat,  and  in  an  instant  he  had  slipped 
from  the  wall,  and  dropped  on  his  hands 
and  knees  on  the  beach  below.  When  Gor 
don  reached  her  the  Frenchman  had  re 
turned,  and  was  supporting  her  head  on  his 
knee  and  covering  her  head  with  her  parasol. 

"  The  lady  has  fainted  ! "  he  exclaimed 
eagerly.  His  manner  was  no  longer  one  of 
idle  indolence.  He  was  wide  awake  now 
and  visibly  excited. 

"  The  sun  has  been  too  much  for  her," 
he  said.  "  It  is  most  dangerous  walking 
about  at  this  time  of  day." 

Gordon  ran  down  the  beach  and  scooped 
up  some  water  in  his  helmet,  and  dipping 
his  handkerchief  in  it  bathed  her  temples 


THE  KINO'S  JACKAL  115 

and  cheek.  He  had  time  to  note  that  she 
was  a  very  beautiful  girl,  and  the  pallor  of 
her  face  gave  it  a  touch  of  gentleness  that 
he  had  not  seen  there  before. 

"  I  will  go  to  the  hotel  and  bring  assist 
ance,"  said  the  stranger,  uneasily,  as  the 
woman  showed  signs  of  regaining  con 
sciousness. 

"  No,"  said  Gordon,  "  you  '11  stay  where 
you  are  and  shade  her  with  her  umbrella. 
She  '11  be  all  right  in  a  minute." 

The  girl  opened  her  eyes,  and  looking 
up  saw  Gordon  bending  over  her.  She 
regarded  him  for  a  moment  and  made  an 
effort  to  rise,  and  in  her  endeavor  to  do  so 
her  eyes  met  those  of  the  Frenchman,  and 
with  a  sharp  moan  she  shut  them  again 
and  threw  herself  from  Gordon's  knee  to 
the  sand. 

"  Give  me  that  umbrella,"  said  Gordon, 
;<  and  go  stand  over  there  out  of  the  way." 

The  man  rose  from  his  knee  without  show 
ing  any  resentment  and  walked  some  little 


116  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

distance  away,  where  he  stood  with  his  arms 
folded,  looking  out  to  sea.  He  seemed  much 
too  occupied  with  something  of  personal 
interest  to  concern  himself  with  a  woman's 
fainting-spell.  The  girl  lifted  herself  slowly 
to  her  elbow,  and  then,  before  Gordon  could 
assist  her,  rose  with  a  quick,  graceful  move 
ment  and  stood  erect  upon  her  feet.  She 
placed  a  detaining  hand  for  an  instant  on 
the  American's  arm. 

"  Thank  you  very  much,"  she  said.  "  I 
am  afraid  I  have  been  imprudent  in  going 
out  into  the  sun."  Her  eyes  were  fixed 
upon  the  Frenchman,  who  stood  moodily 
staring  at  the  sea  and  tearing  one  of  his 
finger-nails  with  his  teeth.  He  seemed 
utterly  oblivious  of  their  presence.  The 
girl  held  out  her  hand  for  the  parasol  she 
had  dropped  and  took  it  from  Gordon  with 
a  bow. 

"  May  I  walk  back  with  you  to  your 
hotel  ? "  he  asked.  "  Unless  this  gentle 
man  — • " 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  117 

"  Thank  you,"  the  girl  said,  in  tones  which 
the  Frenchman  could  have  easily  overheard 
had  he  been  listening.  "  I  am  quite  able  to 
go  alone  now ;  it  is  only  a  step." 

She  was  still  regarding  the  Frenchman 
closely  ;  but  as  he  was  obviously  unconscious 
of  them  she  moved  so  that  Gordon  hid  her 
from  him,  and  in  an  entirely  different  voice 
she  said,  speaking  rapidly,  — 

"  You  are  Mr.  Gordon,  the  American  who 
joined  us  last  night.  That  man  is  a  spy 
from  Messina.  He  is  Renauld,  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  their  army.  He  must  be 
gotten  away  from  here  at  once.  It  is  a 
matter  for  a  man  to  attend  to.  Will  you 
do  it?" 

"  How  do  you  know  this  ?  "  Gordon  asked. 
"  How  do  you  know  he  is  General  Renauld  ? 
I  want  to  be  certain." 

The  girl  tossed  her  head  impatiently. 

"  He  was  pointed  out  to  me  at  Messina. 
I  saw  him  there  in  command  at  a  review. 
He  has  just  spoken  to  me  —  that  was  what 


118  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

frightened  me  into  that  fainting-spell.  I 
didn't  think  I  was  so  weak,"  she  said, 
shaking  her  head.  "  He  offered  me  a  bribe 
to  inform  him  of  our  plans.  1  tell  you  he 
is  a  spy." 

"  That 's  all  right,"  said  Gordon,  reassur 
ingly  ;  "  you  go  back  to  the  hotel  now  and 
send  those  guards  here  on  a  run.  1  '11  make 
a  charge  against  him  and  have  him  locked  up 
until  after  we  sail  to-night.  Hurry,  please ; 
I  '11  stay  here." 

Gordon  felt  a  pleasurable  glow  of  excite 
ment.  It  was  his  nature  to  throw  himself 
into  everything  he  did  and  to  at  once  become 
a  partisan.  It  was  a  quality  which  made  his 
writings  attractive  to  the  reader,  and  an  ob 
ject  of  concern  to  his  editor.  At  the  very 
word  "  spy,"  and  at  this  first  hint  of  opposi 
tion  to  the  cause  in  which  he  had  but  just 
enlisted,  he  thrilled  as  though  it  had  always 
been  his  own,  and  he  regarded  the  French 
man  with  a  personal  dislike  as  sudden  as  it 
was  unfounded. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  119 

The  Frenchman  had  turned  and  was  walk 
ing  in  the  direction  of  the  city  gate.  His  eyes 
were  bent  on  the  sandy  beach  which  stretched 
before  him,  and  he  made  his  way  utterly  un 
mindful  of  the  waves  that  stole  up  to  his  feet 
and  left  little  pools  of  water  in  his  path. 
Gordon  beckoned  impatiently  to  the  two  sol 
diers,  who  came  running  toward  him  at  the 
hotel,  and  moved  forward  to  meet  them  the 
sooner.  He  took  one  of  them  by  the  wrist 
and  pointed  with  his  other  hand  at  the  retreat 
ing  figure  of  the  Frenchman. 

"  That  man,"  he  said,  "  is  one  of  the  King's 
enemies.  The  King  is  in  danger  while  that 
man  is  here.  Your  duty  is  to  protect  the 
King,  so  he  gives  this  foreigner  into  your 
charge." 

The  soldier  nodded  his  head  in  assent. 

"  The  King  himself  sent  us,"  he  replied. 

"  You  will  place  him  in  the  Civil  Prison," 
Gordon  continued,  "  until  the  King  is  safe  on 
his  yacht,  and  you  will  not  allow  him  to  send 
for  the  French  Consul-General.  If  he  sees 


120  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

the  Consul-General  he  will  tell  him  a  great 
many  lies  about  you,  and  a  great  war-ship 
will  come  and  your  Bashaw  will  be  forced  to 
pay  the  foreigners  much  money.  I  will  go 
with  you  and  tell  this  man  in  his  own  tongue 
what  you  are  going  to  do  with  him." 

They  walked  hurriedly  after  the  French 
man,  and  when  they  had  overtaken  him  Gor 
don  halted  and  bowed. 

u  One  moment,  please,"  he  said.  "  These 
soldiers  have  an  order  for  your  arrest.  I 
speak  the  language,  and  if  you  have  anything 
to  say  to  them  I  will  interpret  for  you." 

The  Frenchman  stared  from  Gordon  to  the 
guards  and  then  laughed  incredulously  but 
with  no  great  confidence.  He  had  much  to 
say,  but  he  demanded  to  know  first  why  he 
should  be  arrested. 

"  The  lady  you  insulted,"  Gordon  answered 
gravely,  "  happened,  unfortunately  for  you,  to 
be  one  of  the  King's  guests.  She  has  com 
plained  to  him,  and  he  has  sent  these  soldiers 
to  put  you  where  you  cannot  trouble  her  again. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  121 

You  see,  sir,  you  cannot  annoy  women  with 
impunity  even  in  this  barbarous  country." 

"Insult  her!  I  did  not  insult  her,"  the 
man  retorted.  "  That  is  not  the  reason  I  am 
arrested." 

"  You  annoyed  her  so  much  that  she  fainted. 
I  saw  you,"  said  Gordon,  backing  away  with 
the  evident  purpose  of  abandoning  the  for 
eigner  to  his  guards. 

"  She  has  lied,"  the  man  cried,  "  either 
to  the  King  or  to  me.  I  do  not  know  which, 
but  I  am  here  to  find  out.  That  is  why  I 
came  to  Tangier,  and  I  intend  to  learn  the 
truth." 

"  You  've  begun  rather  badly,"  Gordon 
answered,  as  he  still  retreated.  "  In  the  Civil 
Prison  your  field  of  investigation  will  be 
limited." 

The  Frenchman  took  a  hasty  step  toward 
him,  shrugging  off  the  hand  one  of  the  sol 
diers  had  placed  on  his  shoulder. 

"  Are  you  the  Prince  Kalonay,  sir  ? "  he 
demanded.  "  But  surely  not,"  he  added. 


122  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  No,  I  am  not  the  Prince,"  Gordon  an 
swered.  "  I  bid  you  good-morning,  sir." 

"  Then  you  are  on  the  other  side,"  the  man 
called  after  him  eagerly,  with  a  tone  of  great 
relief.  "  I  have  been  right  from  the  very  first. 
1  see  it  plainly.  It  is  a  double  plot,  and  you 
arc  one  of  that  woman's  dupes.  Listen  to  me 
—  I  beg  of  you,  listen  to  me —  I  have  a  story 
to  tell." 

Gordon  paused  and  looked  back  at  the  man 
over  his  shoulder,  doubtfully. 

"  It 's  like  the  Arabian  Nights,"  he  said, 
with  a  puzzled  smile.  "  There  was  once  a 
rich  merchant  of  Bagdad  and  the  Saltan  was 
going  to  execute  him,  but  they  put  off  the 
execution  until  he  could  tell  them  the  story 
of  the  Beautiful  Countess  and  the  French 
Envoy.  I  am  sorry,"  he  added,  shaking  his 
head,  "  but  I  cannot  listen  now.  I  must  not 
be  seen  talking  to  you  at  all,  and  every  one 
can  sec  us  here." 

They  were  as  conspicuous  figures  on  the 
flat  surface  of  the  beach  as  two  palms  in 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  123 

a  desert,  and  Gordon  was  most  anxious  to 
escape,  for  he  was  conscious  that  he  could 
be  observed  from  every  point  in  the  town.  A 
hundred  yards  away,  on  the  terrace  of  the 
hotel,  he  saw  the  King,  Madame  Zara,  Barrat, 
and  Erhaupt  standing  together  watching  them. 

"  If  the  American  leaves  him  now,  we  are 
safe,"  the  King  was  saying.  He  spoke  in  a 
whisper,  as  though  he  feared  that  even  at  that 
distance  Gordon  and  the  Frenchman  could 
overhear  his  words.  "  But  if  he  remains  with 
him  he  will  find  out  the  truth,  and  that 
means  ruin.  He  will  ruin  us." 

"  Look,  he  is  coming  this  way,"  Zara  an 
swered.  "  He  is  leaving  him.  The  danger 
is  past." 

The  Frenchman  raised  his  eyes  and  saw 
the  four  figures  grouped  closely  together  on 
the  terrace. 

"  See,  what  did  I  tell  you  ? "  he  cried. 
"  She  is  with  the  King  now.  It  is  a  plot  within 
a  plot,  and  I  believe  you  know  it,"  he  added 
furiously.  "  You  are  one  of  these  brave 


124  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

blackmailers  yourself  —  that  is  why  you  will 
not  let  me  speak." 

"  Blackmailers  !  "  said  Gordon.  "  Confound 
your  impudence,  what  the  devil  do  you  mean 
by  that?" 

But  the  Frenchman  was  staring  angrily  at 
the  distant  group  on  the  terrace,  and  Gordon 
turned  his  eyes  in  the  same  direction.  Some 
thing  lie  saw  in  the  strained  and  eager  atti 
tude  of  the  four  conspirators  moved  him  to  a 
sudden  determination. 

"  That  will  do,  you  must  go,"  he  com 
manded,  pointing  with  his  arm  toward  the 
city  gate ;  and  before  the  Frenchman  could 
reply,  he  gave  an  order  to  the  guards,  and 
they  seized  the  foreigner  roughly  by  either 
arm  and  hurried  him  away. 

"Thank  God!"  exclaimed  the  King, piously. 
"  They  have  separated,  and  the  boy  thinks  he 
is  rendering  us  great  service.  Well,  and  so 
he  is,  the  young  fool." 

The  group  on  the  piazza  remained  motion 
less,  watching  Gordon  as  he  leisurely  lit  a 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  125 

cigar  and  stood  looking  out  at  the  harbor 
until  the  Frenchman  had  disappeared  inside 
the  city  wall.  Then  he  turned  and  walked 
slowly  after  him. 

"  I  do  not  like  that.  I  do  not  like  his  fol 
lowing  him,"  said  Barrat,  suspiciously. 

"  That  is  nothing,"  answered  the  King. 
"  He  is  going  to  play  the  spy  and  see  that  the 
man  is  safely  in  jail.  Then  he  will  return 
and  report  to  us.  We  must  congratulate  him 
warmly.  He  follows  at  a  discreet  distance, 
you  observe,  and  keeps  himself  well  out  of 
sight.  The  boy  knows  better  than  to  com 
promise  himself  by  being  seen  in  conversation 
with  the  man.  Of  course,  if  Renauld  is  set 
free  we  must  say  we  had  no  part  in  his  arrest, 
that  the  American  made  the  arrest  on  his  own 
authority.  What  a  convenient  tool  the  young 
man  is.  Why,  his  coming  really  frightened 
us  at  first,  and  now  —  now  we  make  a  cat's- 
paw  of  him."  The  King  laughed  merrily. 
"  We  undervalue  ourselves  sometimes,  do  we 
not?" 


126  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  He  is  a  nice  boy,"  said  Zara.  "  I  feel 
rather  sorry  for  him.  He  looked  so  anxious 
and  distressed  when  I  was  so  silly  as  to  faint 
on  the  beach  just  now.  He  handled  me  as 
tenderly  as  a  woman  would  have  done  —  not 
that  women  have  generally  handled  me  ten 
derly,"  she  added. 

"  I  was  thinking  the  simile  was  rather  mis 
placed,"  said  the  King. 

Gordon  passed  the  city  wall  and  heard  the 
gates  swing  to  behind  him.  The  Frenchman 
and  his  two  captors  were  just  ahead,  toil 
ing  heavily  up  the  steep  and  narrow  street. 
Gordon  threw  his  cigar  from  him  and  ran 
leaping  over  the  huge  cobbles  to  the  French 
man's  side  and  touched  him  on  the  shoulder. 

"  We  are  out  of  sight  of  the  hotel,  now, 
General,"  he  said.  He  pointed  to  the  dark, 
cool  recesses  of  a  coffee-shop  and  held  back 
the  rug  that  hung  before  it.  "  Come  in  here," 
he  said,  "  and  tell  me  that  story." 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  127 


IV 


T)ARON  BARRAT  was  suspicious  by  edu- 
-*-^  cation  —  his  experience  of  life  and  his 
own  conduct  had  tended  to  render  him  so ; 
and  accordingly  when  three  hours  after  he  had 
seen  Gordon  apparently  commit  the  French 
officer  to  jail  he  found  them  leaving  a  caf£  in 
the  most  friendly  and  amicable  spirit,  he 
wasted  no  time  in  investigation,  but  hurried 
at  once  to  warn  the  King. 

"  What  we  feared  would  happen,  has  hap 
pened,"  he  said.  "  The  Frenchman  has  told 
Gordon  that  Zara  and  Kalonay  sold  the  secret 
of  the  expedition,  and  Gordon  will  be  coming 
here  to  warn  you  of  it.  Now,  what  are  you 
going  to  do  ?  We  must  act  quickly." 

"  I  shall  refuse  to  believe  the  Frenchman, 
of  course,"  said  the  King.  "  I  shall  ask  Zara 
in  his  presence  to  answer  his  charges,  and  she 
will  tell  him  he  lies.  That  is  all  there  will  be 


128  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

of  it.  What  does  it  matter  what  he  says  ? 
We  sail  at  midnight.  We  can  keep  him  quiet 
until  then." 

"  If  he  is  troublesome  I  can  call  for  help 
from  this  room,  and  the  servants  of  the  hotel 
and  the  guards  will  rush  in  and  find  us  strug 
gling  together.  We  will  charge  him  with  an 
attempt  at  assassination,  and  this  time  he 
surely  will  go  to  jail.  By  to-morrow  morning 
we  shall  be  many  miles  at  sea." 

"  But  he  can  cable  to  Messina,  by  way  of 
Gibraltar,  and  head  us  off,"  objected  Barrat. 

"  What  can  he  cable  ?  "  demanded  the  King. 
"  Nothing  the  people  of  the  Republic  do  not 
already  know.  It  is  our  friends  here  that 
must  not  find  us  out.  That  is  the  main  tiling. 
Thank  Heaven ! "  he  exclaimed,  "  Kalonay 
and  Paul  are  out  of  the  way,  and  those  crazy 
boys  from  Paris.  We  will  settle  it  here  among 
ourselves  in  five  minutes." 

"  And  the  American  ?  "  asked  Zara.  "  He 
knows,  he  will  come  with  him.  Suppose  he 
believes,  suppose  he  believes  that  Kalonay 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  129 

and  I  have  sold  you  out,  but  suspects  that 
you  know  it?" 

"  The  American  can  go  to  the  devil,"  said 
the  King.  "  Confound  him  and  his  insolence. 
I  '11  have  him  in  the  prison  too,  if  he  inter 
feres.  Or  Erhaupt  can  pick  a  quarrel  with 
him  here  and  fight  it  out  behind  the  sand-hills 
before  the  others  get  back  from  their  picnic. 
He  has  done  as  much  for  me  before." 

Zara  stood  up.  She  was  trembling  slightly, 
and  she  glanced  fearfully  from  Erhaupt  to  the 
King. 

"  You  will  not  do  that,"  she  said. 

"  And  why  not,  madame  ? "  demanded 
Louis. 

"  Because  it  will  be  murder,"  Zara  whis 
pered.  "  He  will  murder  him  as  he  did  that 
boy  in  the  Park  at  Pesth." 

"  What  does  the  woman  mean  ?  "  growled 
the  German.  "  Is  she  mad  ?  Send  her  to  her 
room,  Louis." 

"  You  know  what  I  mean,"  Zara  answered, 
her  voice  rising,  in  her  excitement.  "  You 

9 


130  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

fired  before  they  gave  the  word.  I  know 
you  did.  Oh,  Louis,"  she  cried,  "  you  never 
warned  me  it  might  come  to  this.  I  am 
afraid.  I  am  afraid  to  meet  that  man  — " 

She  gave  a  sudden  cry.  "  And  Kalonay !  " 
She  held  out  her  hands  appealingly.  "  Indeed," 
she  cried,  "  do  not  let  Kalonay  question  me." 

"  Silence  !  "  commanded  the  King.  "  You 
are  acting  like  a  fool,"  He  advanced  toward 
her,  and  clasped  her  wrist  firmly  in  his  hand. 
"  No  nerves,  now,"  he  said.  "  I  '11  not  have 
it.  You  shall  meet  Kalonay,  and  you  shall 
swear  that  he  is  in  the  plot  against  me.  If 
you  fail  us  now,  we  are  ruined.  As  it  is,  we 
are  sure  to  lose  the  bribe  from  the  Republic, 
but  we  may  still  get  Miss  Carson's  money  if 
you  play  your  part.  It  is  your  word  and  the 
word  of  the  Frenchman  against  Kalonay's. 
And  we  have  the  paper  signed  by  you  for 
Kalonay  as  evidence.  Have  you  got  it  with 
you  ? " 

Zara  bowed  her  head.  "  It  is  always  with 
me,"  she  answered. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  131 

"  Good,"  said  the  King.  "  It  will  be  a  diffi 
cult  chance,  but  if  you  stand  to  your  story, 
and  we  pretend  to  believe  you,  the  others  may 
believe  you,  too." 

"  But  I  cannot,"  Zara  cried.  "  I  know  I 
cannot.  I  tell  you  if  you  put  me  face  to  face 
with  Kalonay,  I  shall  fail  you.  I  shall  break 
down.  They  will  see  that  I  am  lying.  Send 
me  away.  Send  me  away  before  they  come. 
Tell  them  I  saw  the  Frenchman,  and  suspected 
I  had  been  found  out,  and  that  I  have  gone 
away.  Tell  them  you  don't  know  where  I 
am." 

"  I  believe  she  's  right,"  Erhaupt  said.  "  She 
will  do  us  more  harm  than  good.  Let  her  go 
to  her  room  and  wait  there." 

"  She  will  remain  where  she  is,"  said  the 
King,  sternly.  "  And  she  will  keep  her  cour 
age  and  her  wits  about  her,  or  —  " 

He  was  interrupted  by  an  exclamation  from 
Barrat.  "  Whatever  you  mean  to  do,  you  must 
do  it  at  once,"  he  said,  grimly.  He  was  stand 
ing  at  the  window  which  overlooked  the  beach. 


132  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  Here  they  come  now,"  he  continued.  "  The 
American  has  taken  no  chances,  he  is  bringing 
an  audience  with  him." 

The  King  and  Erhaupt  ran  to  the  window, 
and  peered  over  Barrat's  shoulder. 

Advancing  toward  them  along  the  beach, 
some  on  foot,  and  some  on  horseback,  were 
all  the  members  of  the  expedition,  those  who 
had  been  of  the  riding  party  and  those  who 
had  remained  in  Tangier.  Gordon  and  the 
Frenchman  Renauld  were  far  in  the  lead, 
walking  by  themselves  and  speaking  earnestly 
together ;  Father  Paul  was  walking  with  Mrs. 
Carson  and  her  daughter,  and  Kalonay  was 
riding  with  two  of  the  volunteers,  the  Count 
de  Rouen  and  Prince  Henri  of  Poitiers. 

When  the  King  and  Erhaupt  turned  from 
the  window  the  Countess  Zara  had  disappeared. 
"  It  is  better  so,"  said  Erhaupt,  "  she  was  so 
badly  frightened  she  would  have  told  the 
truth." 

The  King  stood  leaning  on  the  back  of  a 
large  arm-chair.  "  Well,  the  moment  has 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  133 

come,  it  is  our  last  chance,"  he  said.  "  Send 
for  the  Crown  Prince,  Baron.  I  shall  be  dis 
covered  in  the  act  of  taking  a  tender  farewell 
of  my  son." 

Barrat  made  an  eager  gesture  of  dissent. 

"  I  would  not  do  that,"  he  cried.  "  If  we 
are  to  make  charges  against  the  Jackal  do  not 
have  the  boy  present ;  the  boy  must  not  hear 
them.  You  know  how  Kalonay  worships  the 
child,  and  it  would  enrage  him  more  to  be 
exposed  before  the  Prince  than  before  all  the 
rest  of  the  world.  He  will  be  hard  enough 
to  handle  without  that.  Don't  try  him  too 
far." 

"  You  are  absurd,  Barrat,"  exclaimed  the 
King.  "The  boy  won't  understand  what  is? 
said." 

"  No,  but  the  Jackal  will,"  Barrat  returned. 
"  You  don't  understand  him,  Louis,  he  is  like 
a  woman ;  he  has  sentiment  and  feelings,  and 
when  we  all  turn  on  him  he  will  act  like  a 
madman.  Keep  the  boy  out  of  his  sight,  I 
tell  you.  It 's  the  only  thing  he  cares  for  in 


134  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

the  world.  He  has  been  a  better  father  to  him 
than  you  ever  have  been." 

"  That  was  quite  natural ;  that  was  because 
it  was  his  duty,"  said  the  King,  calmly.  "  A 
Kalonay  has  always  been  the  protector  and 
tutor  of  the  heir  apparent.  If  this  one  chooses 
to  give  his  heart  with  his  service,  that  is  not 
my  concern.  Why,  confound  them,  they  all 
think  more  of  the  child  than  they  do  of  me. 
That  is  why  I  need  him  by  me  now." 

Barrat  shook  his  head.  "  I  tell  you  it  will 
make  trouble,"  he  persisted.  "  Kalonay  will 
not  stand  it.  He  and  the  child  are  more  like 
comrades  than  a  tutor  and  his  pupil.  Why, 
Kalonay  would  rather  sit  with  the  boy  in  the 
Champs-lillyse'es  and  point  out  the  people  as 
they  go  by  than  drive  at  the  side  of  the 
prettiest  woman  in  Paris.  He  always  treats 
him  as  though  he  saw  the  invisible  crown 
upon  his  head ;  he  will  throw  over  any  of  us  to 
stay  in  the  nursery  and  play  tin  soldiers  with 
him.  And  when  he  was  ill  —  "  Barrat  nodded 
his  head  significantly.  "  You  remember." 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  135 

"  That  will  do,"  said  the  King.  "  We  have 
no  time  to  consider  the  finer  feelings  of  the 
Jackal ;  he  is  to  be  sacrificed,  and  that  is  all 
there  is  of  it.  The  presence  of  the  child  may 
make  him  more  unmanageable,  but  it  will 
certainly  make  it  easier  for  me.  So  go,  bring 
the  boy  here  as  I  bid  you." 

Barrat  left  the  room  and  returned  immedi 
ately,  followed  by  the  Crown  Prince  and  his 
nurse.  The  Prince  was  a  dark,  handsome 
little  fellow  of  four  years.  His  mother  had 
died  when  he  was  born,  and  he  had  never 
played  with  children  of  his  own  age,  and  his 
face  was  absurdly  wise  and  wistful ;  but  it 
lighted  with  a  sweet  and  grateful  smile  when 
any  one  showed  him  kindness  or  sought  to 
arouse  his  interest.  To  the  Crown  Prince 
Kalonay  was  an  awful  and  wonderful  being. 
He  was  the  one  person  who  could  make  him 
laugh  out  of  pure  happiness  and  for  no  rea 
son,  as  a  child  should  laugh.  And  people 
who  had  seen  them  together  asked  which  of 
the  princes  was  the  older  of  the  two.  When 


136  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

the  child  entered  the  room,  clinging  to  Bar- 
rat's  linger,  lie  carried  in  his  other  hand  a 
wooden  spade  and  bucket,  still  damp  with 
sand,  and  he  was  dressed  in  a  shabby  blue 
sailor  suit  which  left  his  little  legs  bare,  and 
exposed  the  scratches  and  bruises  of  many 
falls.  A  few  moments  later,  when  the  con 
spirators  entered  the  King's  salon,  preceded 
by  Erhaupt,  they  found  the  boy  standing  by 
his  father's  knee.  The  King  had  his  hand 
upon  the  child's  head,  and  had  been  inter 
rupted  apparently  in  a  discourse  on  the  dig 
nity  of  kingship,  for  the  royal  crown  of 
Messina  had  been  brought  out  and  stood  be 
side  him  on  the  table,  and  his  other  hand 
rested  on  it  reverently.  It  was  an  effective 
tableau,  and  the  visitors  observed  it  with 
varying  emotions,  but  with  silence. 

The  King  rose,  taking  his  son's  hand  in  his, 
and  bowed,  looking  inquiringly  from  Barrat 
to  the  Prince  Kalonay. 

"  To  what  do  I  owe  the  pleasure  of  this 
visit  ? "  he  asked.  "  Was  it  discreet  of  you  to 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  137 

come  together  in  this  way  ?  But  you  are 
most  welcome.  Place  chairs  for  the  ladies, 
Barrat." 

Kalonay  glanced  at  the  others,  and  they 
nodded  to  him  as  though  to  make  him  their 
spokesman.  He  pointed  at  Gordon  with  his 
cap. 

"  We  are  here  on  the  invitation  of  this 
gentleman,  your  Majesty,"  he  said.  "  He 
took  it  upon  himself  to  send  after  those  of  us 
who  had  gone  into  the  country,  and  came  in 
person  for  the  others  who  remained  in  town. 
He  tells  us  he  has  news  of  the  greatest  impor 
tance  to  communicate,  which  he  cannot  disclose 
except  to  you,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  of 
those  who  are  to  take  part  in  the  expedition. 
We  decided  to  accompany  him  here,  as  he 
asked  us,  and  to  leave  it  to  your  Majesty  to 
say  whether  or  not  you  wished  us  to  remain." 
Kalonay  smiled  in  apology  at  the  King,  and 
the  King  answered  him  with  a  smile. 

"  The  procedure  is  perhaps  unconven 
tional,"  the  King  said,  "  but  in  America  they 


138  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

move  quickly.  No  doubt  our  young  compan 
ion  has  acted  as  he  thought  was  for  the  best. 
If  he  has  taken  a  liberty,  the  nature  of  his 
news  will  probably  excuse  him.  Perhaps, 
Mr.  Gordon,"  he  added,  turning  to  the 
American,  "  you  had  better  first  tell  me  what 
this  discovery  is,  and  I  will  decide  whether  it 
is  best  to  discuss  it  in  open  council." 

Gordon  did  not  appear  to  be  the  least  dis 
turbed  by  the  criticism  Kalonay  and  the  King 
had  passed  upon  his  conduct.  He  only  smiled 
pleasantly  when  the  King  had  finished  speak 
ing,  and  showed  no  inclination  to  accept  a 
private  audience. 

"  What  I  have  to  say,  your  Majesty,"  he 
began,  "  is  this.  I  have  learned  that  all  the 
secrets  of  your  expedition  have  been  sold  to 
the  Republic  of  Messina.  One  of  those  now 
present  in  this  room  is  charged  with  having 
sold  them.  Shall  1  go  on,"  he  asked,  "  or  do 
you  still  think  it  advisable  for  any  one  to  leave 
the  room  ?  " 

He  paused  and  glanced  from  the  King  to 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  139 

the  double  row  of  conspirators,  who  were 
standing  together  in  a  close  semicircle  facing 
the  King  and  himself.  The  instant  he  ceased 
speaking  there  rose  from  their  ranks  an  out 
burst  of  consternation,  of  anger,  and  of  indig 
nant  denial.  The  King's  spirits  rose  within 
him  at  the  sound,  although  he  frowned  and 
made  a  gesture  as  though  to  command  silence. 

"  Mr.  Gordon,  this  is  a  serious  charge  you 
make,"  he  said,  smiling  grimly.  "  One  that 
may  cost  you  a  great  deal  —  it  might  cost  you 
your  life  perhaps."  He  paused  significantly, 
and  there  was  a  second  outburst,  this  time 
from  the  younger  men,  which  came  so  sud 
denly  that  it  was  as  though  Louis  had  played 
upon  certain  chords  on  a  keyboard,  and  the 
sounds  he  wanted  had  answered  to  his  touch. 

"  Pardon  me,  that  is  not  the  question,"  said 
Gordon.  "  That  I  make  charges  or  run  risks 
in  making  charges  is  not  important.  That 
your  expedition  has  failed  before  it  has  even 
started  is,  however,  of  great  importance,  at 
least  so  it  seems  to  me." 


140  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

There  was  a  movement  in  the  circle,  and 
Father  Paul  pushed  his  way  forward  from 
his  place  beside  Miss  Carson's  chair.  He 
was  so  greatly  moved  that  when  he  spoke 
his  voice  was  harsh  and  broken.  "  What  is 
your  authority  for  saying  we  have  failed?" 
he  demanded. 

Gordon  bowed  gravely  and  turned  and 
pointed  to  the  Frenchman.  "  This  gentle 
man,"  he  said,  "  is  General  Renauld,  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  army  of  Messina. 
He  is  my  authority.  He  knows  all  that 
you  mean  to  do.  If  he  knows  it,  it  is  likely, 
is  it  not,  that  his  army  and  the  President 
of  the  Republic  know  it  also,  and  that 
when  we  attempt  to  land  they  will  be  wait 
ing  for  us." 

The  King  silenced  the  second  outburst 
that  followed  this  by  rising  and  holding  up 
his  hand. 

"  Silence !  I  believe  I  can  explain,"  he 
said.  He  was  smiling,  and  his  bearing 
was  easy  and  so  full  of  assurance  that  the 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  141 

exclamations  and  whispers  died  away  on 
the  instant.  "  I  am  afraid  I  see  what  has 
happened,"  the  King  said.  "  But  there  need 
be  no  cause  for  alarm.  This  gentleman 
is,  as  Mr.  Gordon  says,  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Messinian  army,  and  it  is  true 
he  suspected  that  an  armed  force  would 
invade  the  island.  It  is  not  strange  that 
he  should  have  suspected  it,  and  it  needed 
no  traitor  to  enlighten  him.  The  visit  of 
Father  Paul  and  the  Prince  Kalonay  in 
the  yacht,  and  their  speeches  inciting  the 
people  to  rebellion,  would  have  warned  the 
government  that  an  expedition  might  soon 
follow.  The  return  of  our  yacht  to  this 
place  has  no  doubt  been  made  known  in 
Messina  through  the  public  press,  and 
General  Renauld  followed  the  yacht  here 
to  learn  what  he  could  of  our  plans  —  of 
our  intended  movements.  He  came  here 
to  spy  on  us,  and  as  a  spy  I  ordered  Mr. 
Gordon  to  arrest  him  this  morning  on  any 
charge  he  pleased,  and  to  place  him  out  of 


142  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

our  way  until  after  to-night,  when  we  should 
have  sailed.  I  chose  Mr.  Gordon  to  un 
dertake  this  service  because  he  happened 
to  speak  the  language  of  the  country,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  deal  directly  with  the 
local  authorities  without  the  intervention 
of  an  outsider.  What  has  happened  is 
only  too  evident.  The  spy,  who  when  he 
came  here  only  suspected,  now,  as  Mr. 
Gordon  says,  knows  the  truth,  and  he  could 
have  learned  it  only  from  one  person,  to 
whom  he  has  no  doubt  paid  a  pretty  price 
for  the  information."  The  King  took  a 
step  forward  and  pointed  with  his  hand  at 
the  American.  "  I  gave  that  man  into  your 
keeping,  sir,1'  he  cried,  "  but  I  had  you 
watched.  Instead  of  placing  him  in  jail 
you  took  him  to  a  cafd  and  remained  there 
with  him  for  three  hours,  and  from  that 
cafd  you  came  directly  here  to  this  room. 
If  he  knows  the  truth,  he  learned  it  in  that 
cafe",  and  he  learned  it  from  you  !  "  There 
was  a  ring  of  such  earnestness  and  sincerity 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  143 

in  the  King's  speech,  and  he  delivered  it 
with  such  indignation  and  bitter  contempt 
that  a  shout  of  relief,  of  approbation  and 
conviction,  went  up  from  his  hearers,  and 
fell  as  quickly  on  the  words  as  the  applause 
of  an  audience  drowns  out  the  last  note  of  a 
great  burst  of  song.  Barrat,  in  the  excess 
of  his  relief,  turned  his  back  sharply  on  the 
King,  glancing  sideways  at  Erhaupt  and 
shaking  his  head  in  speechless  admiration. 
"  He  is  wonderful,  simply  wonderful," 
Erhaupt  muttered ;  "  he  would  have  made 
a  great  actor  or  a  great  diplomat." 

"  He  is  wasted  as  a  King,"  whispered 
Barrat. 

There  was  a  menacing  movement  on  the 
part  of  the  younger  men  toward  Gordon  and 
General  Renauld,  which  the  King  noted, 
but  which  he  made  no  effort  to  check. 
Neither  Gordon  nor  General  Renauld  gave 
any  sign  that  they  observed  it.  The  Ameri 
can  was  busily  engaged  in  searching  his 
pockets,  and  from  one  of  these  he  produced 


144  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

two  pieces  of  paper,  which  he  held  up  above 
his  head,  so  that  those  in  the  room  might 
see  them. 

"  One  moment,  please,"  he  began,  and 
then  waited  until  the  tumult  in  the  room 
had  ceased.  "  Again,  I  must  point  out  to 
you,"  he  said  in  brisk,  business-like  tones, 
"  that  we  are  digressing.  The  important 
thing  is  not  who  did,  or  did  not,  sell  out 
the  expedition,  but  that  it  is  in  danger  of 
failing  altogether.  What  his  Majesty  says 
is  in  part  correct.  I  did  not  take  this 
gentleman  to  jail ;  I  did  take  him  to  a 
cafe",  and  there  he  told  me  much  more  con 
cerning  the  expedition  than  I  had  learned 
from  those  directly  interested.  His  informa 
tion,  he  told  me,  had  been  sold  to  the  Repub 
lic  by  one  who  visited  the  island  and  who 
claimed  to  act  for  one  other.  I  appreciated 
the  importance  of  what  he  said,  and  I  also 
guessed  that  my  word  and  his  unsupported 
might  be  doubted,  as  you  have  just  doubted 
it.  So  I  took  the  liberty  of  verifying  what 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  145 

General  Renauld  told  me  by  cabling  to  the 
President  of  Messina." 

There  was  a  shout  of  consternation  at  these 
words,  but  Gordon's  manner  was  so  confident 
and  the  audacity  of  his  admission  so  surprised 
his  hearers  that  they  were  silent  again  imme 
diately,  and  waited,  with  breathless  interest, 
while  Gordon  unfolded  one  of  the  pieces  of 
paper. 

"  This  is  a  copy  of  the  cablegram  I  sent 
the  President,"  he  said,  "  and  to  which,  with 
his  permission,  I  signed  General  Renauld's 
name.  It  is  as  follows :  — 

The  President.  The  Palace,  Messina.  —  They 
will  not  believe  you  are  fully  informed.  Cable 
at  once  the  exact  hour  when  they  will  leave 
Tangier,  at  what  hour  they  expect  to  land,  at 
what  place  they  expect  to  land,  what  sum  you 
have  promised  to  pay  for  this  information,  and 
the  names  of  those  to  whom  it  is  to  be  paid. 

RENAULD. 

Gordon  lowered  the  paper.     "  Is  that  quite 
clear  ?  "  he  asked.     "  Do  you  follow  me  ?     1 
10 


146  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

have  invited  the  enemy  himself  to  inform  you 
of  your  plans,  and  to  tell  you  who  has  be 
trayed  them.  His  answer,  which  was  received 
a  half  hour  ago,  removes  all  suspicion  from 
any  save  those  he  names.  General  Renauld 
and  myself  cease  to  be  of  the  least  conse 
quence  in  the  matter ;  we  are  only  messen 
gers.  It  is  the  President  of  Messina  who  will 
speak  to  you  now.  If  you  still  doubt  that  the 
secret  of  your  expedition  is  known  to  the 
President  you  will  have  to  doubt  him." 

The  King  sprang  quickly  to  his  feet  and 
struck  the  arm  of  his  chair  sharply  with  his 
open  hand. 

"  I  shall  not  permit  that  message  to  be 
read,"  he  said.  "  If  we  have  a  traitor  here, 
he  is  a  traitor  against  me.  And  I  shall  deal 
with  him  as  I  see  fit,  in  private." 

There  was  a  murmur  of  disappointment 
and  of  disapproval  even,  and  the  King  again 
struck  the  arm  of  his  chair  for  silence.  Kal- 
onay  advanced  toward  him,  shaking  his  head 
and  holding  out  his  hands  in  protest. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  147 

"  Your  Majesty,  I  beseech  you,"  he  began. 
"  This  concerns  us  all,"  he  cried.  "  It  is  too 
evident  that  we  have  been  betrayed  ;  but  it  is 
not  fair  to  any  of  us  that  we  should  all  lie 
under  suspicion,  as  we  must  unless  it  is  told 
who  has  been  guilty  of  this  infamy.  I  beg 
your  Majesty  to  reconsider.  There  is  no  one 
in  this  room  who  is  not  in  our  secret,  and 
whoever  has  betrayed  us  must  be  with  us 
here  and  now.  I,  who  have  an  interest 
second  only  to  your  own,  ask  that  that  cable 
gram  be  read." 

There  was  a  murmur  of  approbation  from 
the  conspirators,  and  exclamations  of  ap 
proval  and  entreaty.  Miss  Carson,  in  her 
excitement,  had  risen  to  her  feet  and  was 
standing  holding  her  mother's  hand.  The 
King  glanced  uncertainly  at  Kalonay,  and 
then  turned  to  Barrat  and  Erhaupt  as  if  in 
doubt. 

Gordon's  eyes  were  fixed  for  a  moment  on 
Kalonay  with  a  strange  and  puzzled  expres 
sion.  Then  he  gave  a  short  sigh  of  relief, 


148  77/7?   KING'S  JACKAL 

and  turning  quickly  searched  the  faces  of 
those  around  him.  What  he  saw  seemed  to 
confirm  him  in  his  purpose,  for  he  folded  the 
paper  and  placed  it  in  his  pocket.  "  His  Maj 
esty  is  right,"  he  said.  "  I  shall  not  read  this." 

Kalonay  and  Father  Paul  turned  upon  him 
angrily.  "  You  have  no  choice  in  the  matter, 
sir,"  Kalonay  cried.  "  It  has  passed  entirely 
out  of  your  hands." 

"  I  beg  your  Majesty  that  the  cablegram 
be  read,"  the  priest  demanded,  in  a  voice  that 
held  less  the  tone  of  a  request  than  of  a 
command. 

"  I  shall  not  read  it,"  persisted  Gordon, 
"  because  the  person  chiefly  concerned  is  not 
present." 

"That  is  all  the  more  reason  for  reading 
it,"  said  Kalonay.  "Your  Majesty  must 
reconsider." 

The  King  whispered  to  Barrat,  and  the 
others  waited  in  silence  that  expressed  their 
interest  more  clearly  than  a  chorus  of  ques 
tions  would  have  done. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  149 

"  It  shall  be  as  you  ask,"  the  King  said  at 
last.  "  You  may  read  the  message,  Mr. 
Gordon." 

Gordon  opened  the  paper  and  looked  at  it 
for  some  seconds  of  time  with  a  grave  and 
perplexed  expression,  and  then,  with  a  short 
breath  as  one  who  takes  a  plunge,  read  it 
aloud.  "This  is  it,"  he  said. 

To  General  Renauld.  Cable  Office,  Tangier. 
—  They  leave  Tangier  Tuesday  at  midnight,  they 
land  at  daybreak  Thursday  morning  on  the  south 
beach  below  the  old  breakwater.  The  secret  of 
the  expedition  was  sold  us  for  three  hundred 
thousand  francs  by  the  Countess  Zara  and  the 
Prince  Kalonay. 

Gordon  stuck  the  paper  in  his  pocket,  and, 
crossing  to  Kalonay,  held  out  his  hand  with 
a  smile.  "  I  don't  believe  it,  of  course,"  he 
said;  "but  you  would  have  it." 

Kalonay  neither  saw  the  gesture  nor  heard 
the  words.  He  was  turning  in  bewilderment 
from  the  King  to  Father  Paul,  and  he  laughed 
uncertainly. 


150  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"What  nonsense  is  this?"  he  demanded. 
"  Whose  sorry  trick  is  this  ?  The  lie  is  not 
even  ingenious." 

General  Renauld  had  not  spoken  since  he 
had  entered  the  room,  but  now  he  advanced 
in  front  of  Kalonay  and  faced  him  with  a 
threatening  gesture. 

"  The  President  of  Messina  does  not  lie, 
sir,"  he  said  sternly.  "  I  myself  saw  the 
Countess  Zara  write  out  that  paper,  which  I 
and  others  signed,  and  in  which  we  agreed  to 
pay  to  her  and  to  you  the  money  you  asked 
for  betraying  your  King." 

Father  Paul  pressed  his  hand  heavily  on 
Kalonay's  shoulder.  "  Do  not  answer  him," 
he  commanded.  Gordon  had  moved  to  Kal 
onay's  other  side,  and  the  three  men  had 
unconsciously  assumed  an  attitude  of  defence, 
and  stood  back  to  back  in  a  little  group  facing 
the  angry  circle  that  encompassed  them.  The 
priest  raised  his  arm  to  command  a  hearing. 

"  Where  is  Madame  Zara  ? "  he  cried. 

"  Ah,  where  indeed  ? "    echoed   the   King, 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  151 

sinking  back  into  his  chair.  "  She  has  fled. 
It  is  all  too  evident  now ;  she  has  betrayed  us 
and  she  has  fled." 

But  on  his  words,  as  if  in  answer  to  the 
priest's  summons,  the  curtains  that  hid  the 
door  into  the  King's  private  room  were  pulled 
to  one  side,  and  Madame  Zara  appeared  be 
tween  them,  glancing  fearfully  at  the  excited 
crowd  before  her.  As  she  stood  hesitating 
on  the  threshold,  she  swayed  slightly  and 
clutched  the  curtains  for  a  moment  as  though 
for  support.  The  priest  advanced,  and  led 
her  to  the  centre  of  the  room.  She  held  a 
folded  paper  in  her  hand,  which  she  gave  to 
him  in  silence. 

"  You  have  heard  what  has  passed  ? "  he 
asked,  with  a  toss  of  his  head  toward  the 
heavy  curtains.  The  woman  raised  her 
head  and  bowed.  The  priest  unfolded  the 
paper. 

"Am  I  to  read  this?"  he  asked.  The 
woman  bowed  again. 

There  was  silence  in  the  room  while  the 


152  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

priest's  eyes  ran  quickly  over  the  paper.  He 
crushed  it  in  his  hand. 

"  It  is  as  General  Renauld  says,"  he  ex 
claimed.  "  In  this  the  Republic  of  Messina 
agrees  to  pay  the  Countess  Zara  and  the 
Prince  Kalonay  three  hundred  thousand 
francs,  if  the  expedition  is  withdrawn  after 
it  has  made  a  pretence  of  landing  on  the 
shores  of  Messina." 

He  took  a  step  forward.  "  Madame  Zara," 
he  cried,  in  a  tone  of  warning,  "  do  you  pre 
tend  that  the  Prince  Kalonay  was  your  ac 
complice  in  this ;  that  he  knew  what  you 
meant  to  do  ?  " 

Madame  Zara  once  more  bowed  her  head. 

"  No  !  You  must  speak,"  commanded  the 
priest.  "  Answer  me  !  " 

Zara  hesitated,  in  evident  distress,  and 
glanced  appealingly  at  the  King;  but  the  ex 
pression  on  his  face  was  one  of  grief  and 
of  unrelenting  virtue. 

"  I  do,"  she  said  at  last,  in  a  low  voice. 
"  Kalonay  did  know.  He  thought  the  revolu- 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  153 

tion  would  not  succeed ;  he  thought  it  would 
fail,  and  so  —  and  so  —  and  we  needed  money. 
They  made  me  —  I,  0  my  God,  I  cannot  —  I 
cannot ! "  she  cried  suddenly,  sinking  on  her 
knees  and  hiding  her  face  with  her  hands. 

Kalonay  stepped  toward  her  and  lifted  her 
gently  to  her  feet ;  but  when  she  looked  and 
saw  who  it  was  that  held  her,  she  gave  a  cry 
and  pulled  herself  free.  She  staggered  and 
would  have  fallen,  had  not  Gordon  caught  and 
held  her  by  the  arm.  The  King  rose  from 
his  chair  and  pointed  at  the  shrinking  figure 
of  the  woman. 

"  Stand  aside  from  her,"  he  said  sternly. 
"  Why  should  we  pity  her,  what  pity  has  she 
shown  for  us  —  for  me  ?  She  has  robbed  me 
of  my  inheritance.  But  let  her  go,  she  is  a 
woman ;  we  cannot  punish  her.  Her  sins 
rest  on  her  own  head.  But  you  —  you,"  he 
cried,  turning  fiercely  on  Kalonay,  his  voice 
rising  to  a  high  and  melancholy  key,  "you 
whom  I  have  heaped  with  honors,  whom  I 
have  leaned  upon  as  on  the  arm  of  a  brother, 


154  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

that  you  should  have  sold  me  for  silver,  that 
you  should  have  turned  Judas ! " 

The  crowd  of  volunteers,  bewildered  by  the 
rapid  succession  of  events,  and  confused  and 
rendered  desperate  by  the  failure  of  their  ex 
pedition,  caught  up  the  word,  and  pressing 
forward  with  a  rush,  surrounded  Kalonay  in 
an  angry  circle,  crying  "  Judas  !  "  "  Traitor  !  " 
and  "  Coward  !  " 

Kalonay  turned  from  side  to  side.  On 
some  he  smiled  bitterly  in  silence,  and  at 
others  he  broke  out  into  swift  and  fierce 
denunciations ;  but  the  men  around  him 
crowded  closer  and  would  not  permit  him 
to  be  heard.  He  had  turned  upon  them, 
again  challenging  them  to  listen,  when  there 
was  an  opening  in  the  circle  and  the  men 
stepped  back,  and  Miss  Carson  pushed  her 
way  among  them  and  halted  at  Kalonay's 
side.  She  did  not  look  at  him,  but  at  the 
men  about  him.  She  was  the  only  calm  fig 
ure  in  the  group,  and  her  calmness  at  such 
a  crisis,  and  her  youth,  and  the  fineness  and 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  155 

fearlessness  of  her  beauty,  surprised  them 
into  a  sudden  quiet.  There  was  instantly  a 
cry  for  order,  and  the  men  stood  curious  and 
puzzled,  watching  to  see  what  she  would  do. 

"  Gentlemen,"  she  said,  in  a  clear,  grave 
voice.  "  Gentlemen,"  she  repeated  sharply, 
as  a  few  murmurs  still  greeted  her,  "  if  you 
are  gentlemen,  let  this  lady  speak.  She  has 
not  finished."  She  crossed  quickly  and  took 
the  Countess  Zara  by  the  hand.  "  Go  on, 
madame,"  she  urged  gently.  "  Do  not  be 
afraid.  You  say  they  made  you  do  it.  Who 
made  you  do  it?  You  have  told  us  a  part 
of  the  truth.  Now  tell  us  the  whole  truth." 
For  a  moment  the  girl  seemed  much  the 
older  of  the  two,  and  as  Zara  glanced  up 
at  her  fearfully,  she  smiled  to  reassure  her, 
and  stroked  the  woman's  hand  with  her 
own.  "  Who  made  you  do  it  ? "  she  re 
peated.  "  Not  the  Prince  Kalonay,  surely. 
You  cannot  hope  to  make  us  believe  that. 
We  trust  him  absolutely.  Who  was  it, 
then  ? " 


156  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

The  King  sprang  forward  with  an  oath  ; 
his  apathy  and  mock  dignity  had  fallen 
from  him  like  a  mask.  His  face  was  mot 
tled,  and  his  vicious  little  eyes  flashed  with 
fear  and  anger.  Erhaupt  crowded  close 
behind  him,  crouching  like  a  dog  at  his 
heels. 

"  She  has  lied  enough  already,"  the  King 
cried.  "  We  will  not  listen  to  her.  Take  her 
away." 

"  Yes,  let  her  go,"  shouted  Erhaupt, 
with  a  laugh.  "  If  she  had  been  a  decent 
woman  — 

There  was  a  quick  parting  in  the  group 
and  the  sound  of  a  heavy  blow  as  Kalonay 
flung  himself  upon  Erhaupt  and  struck  him 
in  the  face,  so  that  he  staggered  and 
fell  at  length  upon  the  floor.  Gordon 
stood  over  him,  his  fingers  twitching  at  his 
side. 

';  Stand  up,  you  bully,"  he  said,  "  and  get 
out  of  this,  before  we  throw  you  out." 

Zara's  face  had  turned  a  pitiful  crimson, 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  157 

but  her  eyes  flashed  and  burned  with  re 
solve  and  indignation.  She  stood  erect  and 
menacing,  like  an  angry  goddess,  and  more 
beautiful  in  her  indignation  than  they  had 
ever  seen  her. 

"Now,  I  shall  tell  them  the  truth,"  she 
said  sternly.  "  That  man/'  she  cried,  point 
ing  her  finger  at  the  King,  "  that  man  whom 
they  call  a  King  —  that  man  who  would 
have  sacrificed  the  only  friend  who  serves 
him  unselfishly  —  is  the  man  who  sold  your 
secret  to  the  enemy.  It  was  he  who  made 
me  do  it.  He  sent  me  to  Messina,  and 
while  the  priest  and  the  Prince  Kalonay 
were  working  in  the  south,  I  sold  them  to 
the  government  at  the  capital.  Barrat  knew 
it,  Erhaupt  knew  it,  the  King  himself  planned 
it  —  to  get  money.  He  has  robbed  all  of 
his  own  people  ;  he  had  meant  to  rob  this 
young  girl ;  and  he  is  so  mean  and  pitiful  a 
creature  that  to  save  himself  he  now  tries 
to  hide  behind  the  skirts  of  a  woman,  and 
to  sacrifice  her,  —  the  woman  who  has  given 


158  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

her  soul  to  him.  And  for  this  —  my  God ! " 
she  cried,  her  voice  rising  in  an  accent  of 
agony  and  bitter  contempt  —  "  for  this ! " 

There  was  a  grim  and  momentous  silence 
in  the  room  while  Zara  turned,  and  without 
waiting  to  learn  what  effect  her  words  might 
have,  made  her  way  swiftly  through  the 
crowd  and  passed  on  out  of  the  room  and 
on  to  the  terrace  beyond. 

The  King  crouched  back  in  his  chair  like  a 
common  criminal  in  the  dock,  glancing  fear 
fully  from  under  his  lowered  eyebrows  at 
the  faces  about  him,  and  on  none  did  he  see 
the  least  question  of  doubt  but  that  Zara 
had  at  last  spoken  the  truth. 

"  She  lies,"  the  King  muttered,  as  though 
answering  their  unspoken  thoughts,  "  the 
woman  lies." 

There  was  no  movement  from  the  men 
about  him.  Shame  for  him,  and  grief  and  bit 
ter  disappointment  for  themselves,  showed  on 
the  face  of  each.  From  outside  a  sea-breeze 
caught  up  the  sand  of  the  beach  and  drove 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  159 

it  whispering  against  the  high  windows,  and 
the  beat  of  the  waves  upon  the  shores  filled 
out  and  marked  the  silence  of  the  room. 

The  Prince  Kalonay  stepped  from  the  circle 
and  stood  for  a  moment  before  the  King,  re 
garding  him  with  an  expression  of  grief  and 
bitter  irony.  The  King's  eyes  rose  insolently, 
and  faltered,  and  sank. 

"  For  many  years,  your  Majesty,"  the  Prince 
said,  but  so  solemnly  that  it  was  as  though  he 
were  a  judge  upon  the  bench,  or  a  priest 
speaking  across  an  open  grave,  "  the  Princes 
of  my  house  have  served  the  Kings  of  yours. 
In  times  of  war  they  fought  for  the  King  in 
battle,  they  beggared  themselves  for  him  in 
times  of  peace ;  our  women  sold  their  jewels 
for  the  King,  our  men  gave  him  their  lives, 
and  in  all  of  these  centuries  the  story  of  their 
loyalty,  of  their  devotion,  has  had  but  one 
sequel,  and  has  met  with  but  one  reward,  — 
ingratitude  and  selfishness  and  treachery. 
You  know  how  I  have  served  you,  Louis. 
You  know  that  I  gave  up  my  fortune  and  my 


160  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

home  to  go  into  exile  with  you,  and  I  did  that 
gladly.  But  I  did  more  than  that.  I  did 
more  than  any  king  or  any  man  has  the  right 
to  expect  of  any  other  man.  I  served  your 
idle  purposes  so  well  that  you,  yourself,  called 
me  your  Jackal,  the  only  title  your  Majesty 
has  ever  bestowed  that  was  deserved.  There 
is  no  low  thing  nor  no  base  thing  that  I  have 
not  done  for  you.  To  serve  your  pleasures, 
to  gain  you  money,  I  have  sunken  so  low  that 
all  the  royal  blood  in  Europe  could  not  make 
me  clean.  But  there  is  a  limit  to  what  a  man 
may  do  for  his  King,  and  to  the  loyalty  a 
King  may  have  the  right  to  demand.  And 
to-day  and  here,  with  me,  the  story  of  our 
devotion  to  your  House  ends,  and  you  go  your 
way  and  I  go  mine,  and  the  last  of  my  race 
breaks  his  sword  and  throws  it  at  your  feet, 
and  is  done  with  you  and  yours  forever." 

Even  those  in  the  room  who  held  no  sym 
pathy  in  their  hearts  for  the  sentiment  that 
had  inspired  the  young  man,  felt  that  at  that 
moment  and  in  their  hearing  he  had  re- 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  161 

nounced  what  was  to  him  his  religion  and  his 
faith,  and  on  the  faces  of  all  was  the  expres 
sion  of  a  deep  pity  and  concern.  Their  own 
adventure,  in  the  light  of  his  grief  and  bitter 
ness  of  spirit,  seemed  selfish  and  little,  and 
they  stood  motionless,  in  an  awed  and  sor 
rowful  silence. 

The  tense  strain  of  the  moment  was  broken 
suddenly  by  the  advent  on  the  scene  of  an 
actor  who  had,  in  the  rush  of  events,  been 
neglected  and  forgotten.  The  little  Crown 
Prince  had  stood  clinging  to  his  nurse's  skirts, 
an  uncomprehending  spectator  of  what  was 
going  forward.  But  he  now  advanced  slowly, 
feeling  that  the  silence  invited  him  to  claim 
his  father's  notice.  He  halted  beside  the  chair 
in  which  Louis  sat,  his  head  bent  on  his  hands, 
and  made  an  effort  to  draw  himself  up  to  his 
father's  knee. 

But  the  King  pushed  him  down,  and  hid 
his  face  from  him.  The  child  turned  irreso 
lutely,  with  a  troubled  countenance,  and,  look 
ing  up,  saw  that  the  attention  of  all  was  fixed 
11 


162  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

upon  him.  At  this  discovery  a  sudden  flood 
of  shyness  overtook  him,  and  he  retreated 
hastily  until  his  eyes  fell  on  the  Prince 
Kalonay,  standing  alone,  with  his  own  eyes 
turned  resolutely  away.  There  was  a  breath 
less  hush  in  the  room,  as  the  child,  with  a 
happy  sigh,  ran  to  his  former  friend  and  com 
rade,  and  reached  up  both  his  arms.  The 
tableau  was  a  familiar  one  to  those  who  knew 
them,  and  meant  only  that  the  child  asked  to 
be  lifted  up  and  swung  to  the  man's  shoulder  ; 
but  following  as  it  did  on  what  had  just 
passed,  the  gesture  and  the  attitude  carried 
with  them  the  significance  of  an  appeal.  Kal 
onay,  as  though  with  a  great  effort,  lowered 
his  eyes  to  the  upturned  face  of  the  child 
below  him,  but  held  himself  back  and  stood 
stiffly  erect.  A  sharp  shake  of  the  head,  as 
though  he  argued  with  himself,  was  the  only 
sign  he  gave  of  the  struggle  that  was  going 
on  within  him. 

At  this  second  repulse,  the    child's  arms 
dropped  to  his  side,  his  lips  quivered,  and  he 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  163 

stood,  a  lonely  little  figure,  glancing  up  at  the 
circle  of  men  about  him,  and  struggling  to 
press  back  the  tears  that  came  creeping  to 
his  eyes. 

Kalonay  regarded  him  steadfastly  for  a  brief 
moment,  as  though  he  saw  him  as  a  stranger, 
searching  his  face  with  eyes  as  pitiful  as  the 
child's  own;  and  then,  with  a  sudden,  sharp 
cry,  the  Prince  dropped  on  his  knee  and 
caught  the  child  toward  him,  crushing  him 
against  his  heart,  and  burying  his  face  on  his 
shoulder.  There  was  a  shout  of  exultation 
from  the  nobles,  and  an  uttered  prayer  from 
the  priest,  and  in  a  moment  the  young  men 
had  crowded  in  around  them,  struggling  to  be 
the  first  to  kiss  the  child's  hands,  and  to  ask 
pardon  of  the  man  who  held  him  in  his  arms. 

"  Gentlemen,"  Kalonay  cried,  his  voice 
laughing  through  his  tears,  "  we  shall  still 
sail  for  the  island  of  Messina.  They  shall 
not  gay  of  us  that  we  visited  the  sins  of  the 
father  on  a  child.  I  was  weak,  my  friends, 
and  I  was  credulous.  I  thought  I  could  break 


164  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

the  tradition  of  centuries.  But  our  instincts 
are  stronger  than  our  pride,  and  the  House  I 
have  always  served  I  shall  serve  to  the  last." 
He  swung  the  Crown  Prince  high  upon  his 
shoulder,  and  held  his  other  arm  above  his 
head.  "  You  will  help  me  place  this  child 
upon  his  throne,"  he  commanded,  and  the 
room  rang  with  cheers.  "  You  will  appeal  to 
his  people,"  he  cried.  "  Do  you  not  think 
they  will  rise  to  this  standard-bearer,  will 
they  not  rally  to  his  call  ?  For  lie  is  a  true 
Prince,  my  comrades,  who  comes  to  them  with 
no  stain  of  wrong  or  treachery,  without  a  taint, 
as  untarnished  as  the  white  snow  that  lies 
summer  and  winter  in  the  hollow  of  our  hills, 
'  and  a  child  shall  lead  us,  and  a  child  shall 
set  them  free.'  To  the  yacht !  "  he  shouted. 
"  We  will  sail  at  once,  and  while  they  wait 
for  us  to  be  betrayed  into  their  hands  at 
the  north,  we  shall  be  landing  in  the  south, 
and  thousands  will  be  hurrying  to  our  stan 
dard." 

His  last  words  were  lost  in  a  tumult   of 


HE    SWUNG   THE   CROWN   PRINCE   HIGH   UPON   HIS   SHOULDER. 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  165 

cheers  and  cries,  and  the  young  men  poured 
out  upon  the  terrace,  running  toward  the  shore, 
and  filling  the  soft  night-air  with  shouts  of 
"  Long  live  the  Prince  Regent !  "  "  Long  live 
our  King ! " 

As  the  room  grew  empty,  Kalonay  crossed 
it  swiftly  and  advancing  to  Miss  Carson  took 
her  hand.  His  face  was  radiant  with  triumph 
and  content.  He  regarded  her  steadily  for  a 
moment,  as  though  he  could  not  find  words  to 
tell  his  feelings. 

"You  had  faith  in  me,"  he  said  at  last. 
"  Can  I  ever  make  you  understand  how  much 
that  means  to  me  ?  When  all  had  turned 
against  me  you  trusted  me,  you  had  faith  in 
me,  in  the  King's  Jackal." 

"  Silence ;  you  must  never  say  that  again." 
the  girl  commanded  gently.  "  You  have  shown 
it  to  be  the  lie  it  always  was.  We  shall  call 
you  the  Defender  of  the  Faith  now ;  you  are 
the  guardian  of  a  King."  She  smiled  at  the 
little  boy  in  his  arms,  and  made  a  slight  cour 
tesy  to  them  both.  "  You  have  outgrown  your 


166  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

old  title,"  she  said ;  "  you  have  a  proud  one 
now,  you  will  be  the  Prince  Regent." 

Kalonay,  with  the  child  in  his  arms,  and 
Miss  Carson  were  standing  quite  alone.  Gen 
eral  Renauld  had  been  led  away,  guarded  by 
a  merry  band  of  youngsters  ;  the  King  still 
crouched  in  his  chair,  with  Barrat  bowed 
behind  him,  but  pulling,  with  philosophic 
calm,  on  a  cigarette,  and  Father  Paul  and 
Gordon  were  in  close  conversation  with  Mrs. 
Carson  at  the  farther  end  of  the  room.  The 
sun  had  set,  and  the  apartment  was  in  semi- 
darkness.  Kalonay  moved  closer  to  Miss 
Carson  and  looked  boldly  into  her  eyes. 
"  There  is  a  prouder  title  than  that  of  the 
Regent,"  he  whispered ;  "  will  you  ever  give 
it  me?" 

The  girl  started,  breathing  quickly,  and 
turned  her  head  aside,  making  an  effort  to 
free  her  hand,  but  Kalonay  held  it  closer  in 
his  own.  "  Will  you  give  it  me  ?  "  he  begged. 

Then  the  girl  looked  up  at  him  smiling, 
but  with  such  confidence  and  love  in  her  eyes 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  167 

that  he  read  bis  answer,  though  she  shook 
her  head,  as  though  to  belie  the  truth  her 
eyes  had  told  him. 

"  When  you  have  done  your  work,"  she 
said,  "  come  to  me  or  send  for  me,  and  I  shall 
come  and  give  you  my  answer ;  and  whether 
you  fail  or  succeed  the  answer  will  be  the 
same." 

Kalonay  stooped  quickly  and  kissed  her 
hand,  and  when  he  raised  his  face  his  eyes 
were  smiling  with  such  happiness  that  the 
little  child  in  his  arms  read  it  there,  and 
smiled  too  in  sympathy,  and  pressed  his  face 
closer  against  his  comrade's  shoulder. 

Gordon  at  this  moment  moved  across  the 
room  and  bowed,  making  a  deep  obeisance  to 
the  child. 

"  Might  I  be  permitted,"  he  asked,  "  to  kiss 
his  Royal  Highness  ?  I  should  like  to  boast 
of  the  fact,  later,''  he  explained. 

The  Crown  Prince  turned  his  sad,  wise 
eyes  on  him  in  silence,  and  gravely  extended 
a  little  hand. 


168  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  You  may  kiss  his  Highness's  hand,"  said 
Kalonay,  smiling. 

Gordon  laughed  and  pressed  the  fingers  in 
his  own. 

"  When  you  talk  like  that,  Kalonay,"  he 
said,  "  you  make  me  feel  like  Alice  in  the 
court-room  with  the  Kings  and  Queens  around 
her.  A  dozen  times  this  afternoon  I've  felt 
like  saying,  '  After  all,  they  are  only  a  pack  of 
cards.'  " 

Kalonay  shook  his  head  and  glanced  toward 
Miss  Carson  for  enlightenment. 

"  I  don't  understand,"  he  said. 

"  No,  you  could  n't  be  expected  to,"  said 
Gordon ;  "  you  have  not  been  educated  up  to 
that.  It  is  the  point  of  view." 

He  stuck  out  the  middle  finger  of  his  hand, 
and  drove  it  three  times  deliberately  into  the 
side  of  the  Crown  Prince.  The  child  gasped 
and  stared  open-mouthed  at  the  friendly 
stranger,  and  then  catching  the  laugh  in 
Gordon's  eyes,  laughed  with  him. 

"  Now,"  said  Gordon,  "  I  shall  say  that  1 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  169 

have  dug  the  King  of  Messina  in  the  ribs  —  that 
is  even  better  than  having  kissed  him.  God 
bless  your  Royal  Highness,"  he  said,  bowing 
gravely.  "  You  may  find  me  disrespectful 
at  times,"  he  added ;  "  but  then,  you  must 
remember,  I  am  going  to  risk  a  valuable  life 
for  you.  At  least  it 's  an  extremely  valuable 
one  to  me." 

Kalonay  looked  at  Gordon  for  a  moment 
with  serious  consideration,  and  then  held  out 
his  hand.  "  You  also  had  faith  in  me,"  he 
said.  "•  I  thank  you.  Are  you  in  earnest ;  do 
you  really  wish  to  serve  us  ? " 

"  I  mean  to  stay  by  you  until  the  boy  is 
crowned,"  said  the  American,  "unless  we 
separate  on  our  several  paths  of  glory  — 
where  they  will  lead  depends,  I  imagine,  on 
how  we  have  lived." 

"  Or  on  how  we  die,"  Kalonay  added.  "  I 
am  glad  to  hear  you  speak  so.  If  you  wish, 
I  shall  attach  you  to  the  person  of  the  Crown 
Prince.  You  shall  be  on  the  staff  with  the 
rank  of  Colonel." 


170  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

Gordon  made  a  low  and  sweeping  bow. 

"  Rise,  Sir  Archibald  Gordon,"  he  said.  "  1 
thank  you,"  he  added.  "  We  shall  strive  to 
please." 

Miss  Carson  shook  her  head  at  him,  and 
sighed  in  protest. 

"  Will  you  always  take  everything  as  a  joke, 
Archie  ?  "  she  said. 

"  My  dear  Patty,"  he  answered,  "  the  situa 
tion  is  much  too  serious  to  take  in  any  other 
way." 

They  moved  to  the  door,  and  there  the 
priest  and  Mrs.  Carson  joined  them ;  but  on 
the  threshold  Kalonay  stopped  and  looked  for 

the   first  time  since  he  had   addressed   him 

» 
at  the  King. 

He  regarded  him  for  some  seconds  sternly 
in  silence,  and  then  pointed,  with  his  free 
hand,  at  the  crown  of  Messina,  which  still 
rested  on  the  table  at  the  King's  elbow. 
"  Colonel  Gordon,"  he  said,  in  a  tone  of  as 
sured  authority, "  I  give  the  crown  of  Messina 
into  your  keeping.  You  will  convey  it,  with  all 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  171 

proper  regard  for  its  dignity,  safely  on  board 
the  yacht,  and  then  bring  it  at  once  to  me." 

When  he  had  finished  speaking  the  Prince 
turned,  and  without  looking  at  the  King, 
passed  on  with  the  others  across  the  terrace 
and  disappeared  in  the  direction  of  the  shore, 
where  the  launch  lay  waiting. 

Gordon  crossed  the  room  and  picked  up  the 
crown  from  the  table,  lifting  it  with  both 
hands,  the  King  and  Barrat  watching  him  in 
silence  as  he  did  so.  He  hesitated,  and  held 
it  for  a  moment,  regarding  it  with  much  the 
same  expression  of  awe  and  amusement  that 
a  man  shows  when  he  is  permitted  to  hold  a 
strange  baby  in  his  arms.  Turning,  he  saw 
the  sinister  eyes  of  the  King  and  of  Barrat 
fastened  upon  him,  and  he  smiled  awkwardly, 
and  in  some  embarrassment  turned  the  crown 
about  in  his  hands,  so  that  the  jewels  in  its 
circle  gleamed  dully  in  the  dim  light  of  the 
room.  Gordon  raised  the  crown  and  balanced 
it  on  his  finger  tips,  regarding  it  severely  and 
shaking  his  head. 


172  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

"  There  are  very  few  of  these  left  in  the 
world  now,  your  Majesty,"  he  said  cheerfully, 
"  and  the  number  is  getting  smaller  every 
year.  We  have  none  at  all  in  my  country, 
and  I  should  think  —  seeing  they  are  so  few 
—  that  those  who  have  them  would  take  better 
care  of  them,  and  try  to  keep  them  untarnished, 
and  brushed  up,  and  clean."  He  turned  his 
head  and  looked  inquiringly  at  the  King,  but 
Louis  made  no  sign  that  he  heard  him. 

"  I  have  no  desire,  you  understand  me," 
continued  Gordon,  unabashed,  "  to  take  advan 
tage  of  a  man  when  he  is  down,  but  the  temp 
tation  to  say  '  I  told  you  so  '  seems  almost 
impossible  to  resist.  What  ?"  he  asked  —  "I 
beg  your  pardon,  I  thought  you  spoke."  But 
the  King  continued  scornfully  silent,  and  only 
a  contemptuous  snort  from  Barrat  expressed 
his  feelings. 

Gordon  placed  the  crown  carefully  under 
his  arm,  and  then  removed  it  quickly,  with  a 
guilty  look  of  dismay  at  its  former  owner,  and 
let  it  swing  from  his  hand ;  but  this  fashion  of 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  173 

carrying  it  seemed  also  lacking  in  respect,  so 
he  held  it  up  again  with  both  hands  and  glanced 
at  the  King  in  some  perplexity. 

"There  ought  to  be  a  sofa  cushion  to  go 
with  this,  or  something  to  carry  it  on,"  he 
said  in  a  grieved  tone.  "  You  see,  I  am  new 
at  this  sort  of  thing.  Perhaps  your  Majesty 
would  kindly  give  me  some  expert  informa 
tion.  How  do  you  generally  carry  it  ?  " 

The  King's  eyes  snapped  open  and  shut 
again. 

"  On  my  head,"  he  said  grimly. 

Gordon  laughed  in  great  relief. 

"  Now,  do  you  know,  I  like  that,"  he  cried. 
"That  shows  spirit.  I  am  glad  to  see  you 
take  it  so  cheerfully.  Well,  I  must  be  going, 
sir,"  he  added,  nodding,  and  moving  toward 
the  door.  "  Don't  be  discouraged.  As  some 
one  says, '  It 's  always  morning  somewhere,' 
and  in  my  country  there 's  just  as  good  men 
out  of  office  as  there  are  in  it.  Good  night." 

While  the  sound  of  Gordon's  footsteps  died 
away  across  the  marble  terrace,  the  King  and 


174  THE  KING'S  JACKAL 

Barrat  remained  motionless  and  silent.  The 
darkness  in  the  room  deepened  and  the  si 
lence  seemed  to  deepen  with  it ;  and  still  they 
remained  immovable,  two  shadowy  figures  in 
the  deserted  apartment  where  the  denuncia 
tions  of  those  who  had  abandoned  them  still 
seemed  to  hang  and  echo  in  the  darkness. 
What  thoughts  passed  through  their  minds 
or  for  how  long  a  time  they  might  still  have 
sat  in  bitter  contemplation  can  only  be 
guessed,  for  they  were  surprised  by  the  sharp 
rattle  of  a  lock,  the  two  great  doors  of  the 
adjoining  room  were  thrown  wide  open,  and  a 
broad  and  brilliant  light  flooded  the  apart 
ment.  Niccolas.  the  King's  major-domo, 
stood  between  the  doors,  a  black  silhouette 
against  the  glare  of  many  candles. 

"  His  Majesty  is  served ! "  he  said. 

The  King  lifted  his  head  sharply,  as  though 
he  found  some  lurking  mockery  in  the  words, 
or  some  fresh  affront ;  but  in  the  obsequious 
bow  of  his  major-domo  there  was  no  mockery, 
and  the  table  beyond  glistened  with  silver, 


THE  KING'S  JACKAL  175 

while  a  pungent  and  convincing  odor  of  rich 
food  was  wafted  insidiously  through  the  open 
doors. 

The  King  rose  with  a  gentle  sigh,  and 
nodded  to  his  companion. 

"  Come,  Barrat,"  he  said,  taking  the  baron's 
arm  in  his.  "  The  rascals  have  robbed  us  of 
our  throne,  but  thank  God,  they  have  had  the 
grace  to  leave  me  my  appetite." 


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author  has  accomplished  his  single  but  most  difficult  purpose.  Without 
narrative  or  preliminary  disquisition,  the  painful  parade  of  the  biographer; 
with  never  so  much  as  a  date  or  a  detail,  he  has  thrown,  as  it  were,  upon  a 
white  sheet  one  single  image,  the  image  of  his  mother,  who  passes  rapidly 
before  us,  laughing,  weeping,  anxious,  happy,  full  of  household  cares  and 
hopes  beyond  the  grave.  .  .  .  To  be  endlessly  interesting  is  the  greatest 
of  charms,  and  it  was  certainly  Margaret  Ogilvy's."—  The  Speaker,  London. 

IN  THE  CAMEO  EDITION.  Each,  with  frontispiece  etching,  by 
G.  Mercier,  ibmo,  $1.25. 

AUI.D  LIGHT  IDYLLS.  A  WINDOW  IN  THRUMS. 

Alexander  Black.     Each,  Illustrated,  $1.00. 
A  CAPITAL  COURTSHIP. 

"  Mr.  Black  is  to  be  congratulated  on  the  happy  inspiration  that  prompt 
ed  him  to  make  a  book  so  thoroughly  attractive."— Chicago  Evening-  Post. 

Miss  JERRY.     A  Love  Story.      Third  Edition. 

Mr.  Howells  says  in  a  letter  to  the  author  :  "  You  have  struck  boldly  at 
life  in  your  story  and  you  have  got  a  fresh  note  from  it." 

Cyrus  Townsend  Brady  (Archdeacon  of  Pennsylvania). 

FOR  LOVE  OF  COUNTRY.     A  Story  of  Land  and  Sea  in  the  Days 
of  the  Revolution.      Third  Edition.     I2mo,  $1.25. 

"One  of  the  very  few  historical  novels  of  worth."— Phila.  Inquirer. 

"A  vigorous  specimen  of  American  historical  fiction.  .  .  .  It  is,  first 
of  all,  a  patriotic  story,  and  the  patriotism  is  not  of  the  blustering  sort,  but 
is  founded  on  high  ideals  of  character  and  conduct  in  private  and  public 
life."— DROCH  in  Life. 


4  SCRIBNER'S  RECENT  FICTION. 

The  Ivory  Series— Continued. 

IN  OLD  NARRAGANSETT.      Romances  and  Realities.     By  Alice 
Morse  Earle. 

"  Mrs.  Earle  has  nowhere  discoursed  more  pleasantly  of  the  old  lore  in 
which  she  is  so  wise." — Providence  Journal. 

PREVIOUS  VOLUMES. 

LITERARY  LOVE  LETTERS,  and  Other  Stories.     By  Robert  Her- 
rick,  author  of  "  The  Man  Who  Wins.'' 

"It  shows  literary  elegance  and  skill,  to  say  nothing  of  the  daintiest  of 
touches.  Robert  Herrick  shows  himself  to  be  a  past  master  in  subtleties  of 
diction  of  the  heart,  and  of  a  vivid  and  brilliant  imaginative  turn."— Chicago 
Times-Herald. 

A  ROMANCE  IN  TRANSIT.     By  Francis  Lynde. 

"  One  of  the  most  readable  stories  we  have  seen  for  a  long  time.  A 
comedy  romance  of  the  happiest  kind."— Boston  Times. 

THE  OLD  GENTLEMAN  OF  THE  BLACK  STOCK.    By  Thomas  Nelson 
Page. 

"The  story  has  the  delicacy,  tenderness  and  sweetness  which  invariably 
characterize  Mr.  Page's  short  stories  ;  and  the  flavor  of  the  South  and  olden 
days  is  like  the  scent  of  rose  leaves  from  a  jar." — Boston  Times. 

THE  MAN  WHO  WINS.     By  Robert  Herrick. 

"It  is  written  with  admirable  restraint,  and  without  affectations  of 
style,  in  the  clearest  English.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  welcome  Mr.  Herrick  into 
the  small  company  of  serious  literp.ry  workers." — Chap  Book. 

AMOS  JUDD.     By.  J.  A.  Mitchell,  Editor  of  Life,    jf/i  Edition. 

"It  is  just  the  book  to  take  home  to  read  before  the  fire— a  book  that 
fulfills  the  simplest  yet  often  the  best  function  of  light  literature,  that  of 
amusing."—  The  Critic. 

A  BRIDE  FROM  THE  BUSH.     By  E.  W.  HORNUNG. 

"  These  pages  glow  with  a  lively  humor,  a  playful  fancy  in  which  there 
is  no  hint  of  an  undesirable  ending." — -Rochester  Post  Express. 

IRRALIK'S  BUSHRANGER.    A  Story  of  Australian  Adventure.     By 
E.  W.  Hornung. 

"It  is  a  delightfully  tormenting  tale,  compacted  of  all  the  good  qualities 
of  romantic  adventurous  fiction." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

IA.     A  Love  Story.     By  "  Q"  (A.  T.  Quiller-Couch). 

"No  one  else  writes  of  Cornwall  and  its  people  with  the  knowledge  and 
skill  of  Mr.  Quiller-Couch."— Phila.  Times. 

ONE  OF  THE  VISCONTI.     By  Eva  Wilder  Brodhead. 

"Pathos,  dramatic  movement,  lightness  and  fine  touches  of  character  arc 
deftly  blended." 


SCRIBNER'S  RECENT  FICTION.  5 

The  Ivory  Series — Continued. 

MADAME  DELFHINE.     By  George  W.  Cable. 

"There  are  few  living  American  writers  who  can  reproduce  for  us  more 
perfectly  than  Mr.  Cable  does,  the  speech,  the  manners,  the  whole  social 
atmosphere  of  a  remote  time  and  a  peculiar  people." — New  York  Tribune. 

THE  SUICIDE  CLUB.     By  Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 

"Readers  of  the  'New  Arabian  Nights'  will  remember  'The  Suicide 
Club '  as  one  of  the  most  thoroughly  fascinating  of  the  stories  in  that  volume. 
It  is  now  published  for  the  first  time  in  America  in  a  separate  volume  and  is 
certain  to  be  one  of  the  most  popular  in  the  dainty  Ivory  Series."— Boston 
Advertiser. 

AN  INHERITANCE.     By  Harriett  Prescott  Spofford. 

"A  splendid  example  of  the  genuine  worth  that  can  be  crowded  into  a 
few  pages."— Boston  Herald. 

A  MASTER  SPIRIT.     By  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford. 
"  Quite  in  Mrs.  Spofford's  old  vein — the  vein  in  which  she  made  herself 
beloved  thirty  years  ago  in  the  pages  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.    It  is  full 
of  music,  color,  young  life  and  passion."— St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press. 

A  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS.     By  Cornelia  Atwood  Pratt. 

"  One  of  the  best  collections  of  bright,  short  stories  given  to  the  world  of 
fiction  this  year." — Union  and  Advertiser. 

Elizabeth  Q.  Jordan. 

TALES  OF  THE  CITY  ROOM.     i2mo,  $1.00. 

"Reveals  the  work  of  one  able  to  call  up  the  'light  behind  the  eyes' 
and  let  it  play  upon  and  truly  interpret  the  daily  panorama  which  passes 
before  the  outer  vision."— Boston  Transcript. 

Walter  Cranston  Larned. 

ARNAUD'S  MASTERPIECE.     A  Romance  of  the  Pyrenees.     $1.25. 

"  No  more  beautiful  or  more  symbolic  story  of  the  highest  conception  of 
Art  could  be  written."— Boston  Herald. 

J.  A.  Mitchell,  Editor  of  Life. 

GLORIA  VICTIS.     i2mo,  $1.25. 

"  In  many  respects  this  story  is  as  beautiful  as  ft  is  powerful  and  un 
hackneyed.  The  characters  are  drawn  with  exceptional  clearness,  and  the 
development  of  the  plot  also  is  masterly."— -The  Congregationalist. 

THAT  FIRST  AFFAIR,   and  Other  Sketches.     Illustrated  by  Gib 
son,  Frost,  Richards,  and  the  Author.     I2mo,  $1.25. 

"Delightful  examples  of  how  short  stories  should  be  written.  .  .  . 
The  volume  is  readable  from  cover  to  cover."— New  York  Tribune. 

AMOS  JUDD.     Seventh  Edition.     (Ivory  Series.)     i6mo,  75  cents. 


6  SCRIBNER'S  RECENT  FICTION. 

Thomas  Nelson  Page. 

PASTIME  STORIES.     With  22  illustrations  by  A.  B.  Frost.     i2mo, 
$1.25. 

This  volume  contains  more  than  a  score  of  Mr.  Page's  fascinating  Vir 
ginia  tales,  among  them  such  gemsi-as  "How  Jinny  Eased  her  Mind,"  "Bil- 
lington's  Valentine,"  "The  True  Story  of  the  Surrender  of  the  Marquis 
Cornwallis,"  and  "Rachel's  Lovers."  The  peculiar  charm  of  the  author's 
Southern  stories  is  one  of  the  best  known  developments  in  our  later 
literature. 

"  Q"  (Arthur  T.  Quiller-Couch). 

The  first  uniform  edition  of  the  writings  of  Mr.  Quiller-Couch, 

comprising  nine  volumes.     Each,  I2mo,  $1.25. 
THE  SPLENDID  SPUR,  THE  BLUE  PAVILIONS, 

THE  DELKCTARLE  DUCHY,         TROY  TOWN, 
WANDERING  HEATH,  DEAD  MAN'S  ROCK, 

I  SAW  THREE  SHIPS,  NOUGHTS  AND  CROSSES, 

ADVENTURES  IN  CRITICISM. 

"  He  is  highly  esteemed  as  among  the  most  imaginative  and  poetic  of 
the  late  English  novelists." — Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 

James  Gardner  Sanderson. 

CORNELL  STORIES.     i2mo,  $1.00. 

A  very  entertaining  volume  of  stories  dealing  with  college  life.  Mr. 
Sanderson  handles  his  material  interestingly  and  succeeds  in  fixing  for  the 
reader  much  of  the  peculiar  "color"  which  appertains  to  each  great  educa 
tional  centre,  and  in  which  Cornell  is  particularly  rich. 

Molly  Elliot  Seawell. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  LADY  BETTY  STAIR.     Illustrated.    $1.25. 
"  One  of  the  most  charming  little  stories  we  have  seen  for  many  a  day." 
—Christian  Advocate. 

THE  SPRIGHTLY  ROMANCE  OF  MARSAC.    Illustrated.   i2mo,  $1.25. 

Anne  Douglas  Sedgwick. 

THE  DULL  Miss  ARCHINARD.     i2mo,  $1.25. 

"It  would  not  be  unjust  to  rank  "  The  Dull  Miss  Archinard  "as  the  most 
readable  novel,  pure  and  simple,  of  the  year." — Boston  Transcript. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 

ST.    IVES.      Being   the   Adventures   of  a   French    Prisoner    in 

England.      I2mo,  $1.50. 

"  '  St.  Ives'  has  the  ingenuity  of  construction,  the  pregnant  portraiture, 
the  pungent,  fresh  and  vivid  dialogue,  the  bright  local  color,  the  swift 
appeal  to  the  imagination,  the  shrewd  wit,  the  constant  surprise,  which,  in 
his  works,  has  become  a  custom." — Boston  Transcript. 


DECENT  FICTION. 


Prank  R.  Stockton. 

THE  GIRL  AT  COBHURST.     i2mo,  $1.50. 

"  It  is  the  kind  of  a  story  that  grows  more  interesting  the  deeper  one  gets 
into  it,  and  the  book  will  be  laid  aside  with  the  feeling  that  the  time  spent  in 
reading  it  has  been  well  employed."—  New  London  Day. 

A  STORY-TELLER'S  PACK.     Illustrated,  i2mo,  $1.50. 

Uniform  with  "  A  Story-Teller's  Pack": 

Each,  handsomely  bound  in  a  decorative  cover,  I2mo,  $1.50. 
MRS.  KNOLLYS,  and  Other  Stories.     By  F.  J.  Stimson,  author  of 

"  Guerndale,"  etc. 

"Mr.  Stimson's  qualities  are  here  exhibited  at  their  best."  —  The  Outlook. 
"  They  are  marked  by  that  fascinating  suggestiveness  which  is  one  of 
Mr.  Stimson  's  charm  s."—  Public  Opinion. 

THE  BACHELOR'S  CHRISTMAS,  and  Other  Stories.      By  Robert 
Grant.     Illustrated. 

"There  is  no  writer  of  short  stories  more  lovable  than  Robert  Grant, 
more  strong  and  sweet  and  human  and  sunny.  In  his  humor  and  in  his 
pathos  he  is  illimitable."  —  The  Interior. 

COMEDIES  OF  COURTSHIP.     By  Anthony  Hope. 

"Without  exception  bright,  racy  and  readable,  clever  .  .  .  and 
worked  out  with  a  knowledge  of  men  and  women  (especially  women)  and 
manners  that  is  all  too  rare  in  these  days  of  voluminous  fiction."—  London 
Literary  World. 

LOVE  IN  OLD  CLOATHES,  and  Other  Stories.     By  H.  C.  Bunner. 

Illustrated. 

Mr.  B.  \V.  Wells  has  said  in  the  Sewanee  Review  of  this  and  the  volume 
of  "Poems  ":  "So  these  two  posthumous  volumes  seem  to  me  to  sum  up  the 
best  and  noblest  of  Mr.  Bunner's  genius." 

Two  Companion  Stories  by  Frank  R.  Stockton.    Each,  i2mo, 

$1.50. 
THE  ADVENTURES  OF  CAPTAIN  HORN. 

MRS.  CLIFF'S  YACHT.     Illustrated. 

"Those  who  remember  '  The  Adventures  of  Captain  Horn,'  and  all  who 
read  the  book  will  remember  it,  have  reason  to  thank  Mr.  Frank  Stockton 
that  he  has  not  left  them  in  suspense  regarding  the  disposition  of  so  much  of 
the  great  treasure  as  fell  to  the  share  of  Mrs.  Cliff  and  of  the  Peruvian  Gov 
ernment.  'Mrs.  Cliff's  Yacht'  is  the  title  of  this  sequel,  and  the  wit  and 
insight  into  human  nature  which  the  first  part  of  the  book  shows  makes  a 
happy  complement  to  the  stirring  adventures  which  occupied  the  last  part, 
where  the  fate  of  the  Peruvian  treasure  is  narrated."  —  Atlantic  Monthly. 

T.  R.  Sullivan. 

ARS  ET  VITA.     Illustrated.     i2mo,  $1.25. 

"The  stories  in  Mr.  Sullivan's  volume  are  all  good  and  some  of  them 
quite  captivating."—  New  York  Tribune. 


8  SCRIBNER'S  RECENT  FICTION. 

Stories  by  Foreign  Authors.   Ten  volumes,  each,  i6mo,  75  cents. 

"These  dainty  volumes  are  well  printed  and  attractively  bound,  and 
commend  themselves  to  the  book  buyer.  The  purchaser  who  treats  himself 
to  the  little  books  as  they  appear  will  have  quite  an  eclectic  library  of  repre 
sentative  fiction." — Detroit  Free  Press. 

FRENCH. 
I. — DAUDET,  FRANCE,  ABOUT,  BOURGET,  DE  MAUPASSANT,  and 

SARDOU. 

II. — COPPEE,  ZOLA,  SOUVESTRE,  DROZ,  and  MERIMEE. 
III. — BALZAC,  LOTI,  GAUTIER,  ROD,  and  DE  VIGNY. 

GERMAN. 

I. — HEYSE,  LINDAU,   SACHER-MASOCH,    BAUMBACH,    HOFFMAN, 
and  ZSCHOKKE. 

II. — AUERBACH,    KOMPERT,    HAUFF,   and   VON    CHAMISSO. 
SPANISH. 

DE  ALARCON,  SELGAS,  BECQUER,  and  CABALLERO. 

RUSSIAN. 
TURGENEV,    POUSHKIN,    GOGOL,   and   TOLSTOI. 

SCANDINAVIAN. 
BJORNSOX,  AHO,  GOLDSCHMIDT,  KIELLAND,  and  BREMER. 

ITALIAN. 

DE  AMICIS,  FOGAZZARO,  CASTELNUOVO,  and  D'ANNUNZIO. 

POLISH,  GREEK,  BELGIAN   AND    HUNGARIAN. 
SlENKIEWICZ,  BlKELAS,  MAETERLINCK,  LEMONNIER,  and   JOKAI. 

Stories  by  American  Authors.    New  edition,  uniform  with  above. 
Ten  volumes,  each,  i6mo,  75  cents. 

Stories  by  English  Authors.     Ten  volumes,  each,  i6mo,  75  cents. 

Benjamin  Swift. 

THE  TORMENTOR.    $1.50. 

"  It  has  much  of  the  brilliant  mental  activity  of  '  Nancy  Noon,'  and  it  is 
much  maturer  in  its  swift  development  of  criminology.  .  .  .  None  but  a 
man  as  sure  of  his  methods  as  Balzac  would  have  dared  to  venture  upon  so 
original  a  study."— Boston  Pier  aid. 

NANCY  NOON,     fourth  edition.    lamo,  $1.50. 

Cy.  War  man. 

THE  EXPRESS  MESSENGER,  and  Other  Stories  of  the  Rail.    i2mo, 

$1.25 

"  They  are  all  dramatic  stories,  written  with  rare  force,  leavened  by  nat 
ural  humor,  and  reveal  uncommon  sifts  of  description  and  minute  observa 
tion.  .  .  .  Mr.  Warman  has  a  field  of  his  own  and  he  is  master  of  it."— 
Philadelphia  Press. 

TALES  OF  AN  ENGINEER,  with  Rhymes  of  the  Rail.     I2mo,  $1.25. 


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